we denied that forever. it is not about getting mad at them because i happen to be a new york-type liberal person in a general way, but i am sure if i was born in the south, i would probably have been fighting against the union because it was just a prospective. we have to get together because the smoke and mirrors, what a powerful people up top, are taking advantage of. >> you can see all of today it's "washington journal" on our website, c-span.org. we go to the national press club in washington to hear from singer natalie cole. she will be talking about chronic hepatitis c. she was diagnosed in 2008. >> visit our website at

www.press.org, and if you care to donate, you can find information ason the website as well. i would like to welcome our speaker and those of you attending today's event. our head table includes gas of the speaker, as well as working journalist who -- guests of the speaker, as well as working journalists who are members. if you hear applause in our audience, we would like to note that members of the general public are attending so it is not necessarily a sign of lack of journalistic objectivity. our weekly podcast is produced by members and available on itunes. our events on twitter using the hashtag @npclunch.

please note that the journalists' presence at the head table does not signify an endorsement of the speaker. we will begin from your right. the washington correspondent for "the detroit free press," a new member of the club. the vice president of communications with the national health council. a longtime young member of the cop, and a reporter for the voice of russia radio. a reporter with the rpm report. a gastroenterologist and a guest of our speaker. if producer and editor with "artistically speaking." the chair of the national board of the american liver foundation, also a guest of our speaker. we will skip over the podium for a moment.

melissa with newshookmedia. we are grateful to have her mother in the audience for misses a be. we are also joined by barbara rose, natalie cole's manager and, obviously, a guest of the speaker. and then there is the editor of "ideas about innovations" at "the washington post." the former white house correspondent for "usa today." "yeas and nays" columnist for "the washington examiner," top follow on twitter. and a writer for the george washington university medical center, a woman's health columnist for "the daily news." she is also a new npc member. please give them a round of

applause. [applause] thank you. our guest today has been caught with the new queen of soul. she grew up in -- called the new queen of soul. she grew up as a true hollywood apperoyalty. she is a bustling performer, author, actors, and a nine-time grammy winner she described her childhood years as a member of a celebrated musical family as being like in the black kennedys. if her father, singer nat king cole, asked who was coming to dinner, it might include the likes of duke ellington and billy holiday trade gifted with a wonderful instrument in her voice, she burst into the are and be seen in the 1970's with her debut album, "inseparable." many of us remember it almost as

if it were yesterday could she topped the charts with hits like "this will be an everlasting love." she won grammys as best new artist of the year and best female r-&-b performance. behind the glitter of success, she was fighting private battles. in a sense that is what brings her here today. her autobiography, "angel on my shoulder," describes a life spiraling out of control of the time, including health challenges and a highly publicized struggle with addiction. she would later say, "as my success escalated, so did the drug problem." fortunately, she rebounded. she began charting new hits likes "miss you like crazy" and they cover a bruce springsteen's "pink cadillac."

she recorded the album "unforgettable with love," an album of her father's biggest hits that was her crowning glory. the biggest single was a duet. her two dozen a album -- 2008 album, "still unforgettable" garnered two more grammys. she had been living with a serious condition known as a silent epidemic to many great she was diagnosed with chronic hepatitis c, a possible result of past abuse of drugs. as it turns out, hepatitis c sides more than 3 million americans, and many, like our best, don't realize that have or are afraid to get treated. my own favorite cousin has been battling in an indianapolis

hospital even as we speak, afflicted with the same condition. he recently underwent a liver transplant and is making a strong recovery it goes to show how many people are touched by this disease. today our guest comes to the historic venue to raise her voice above the virus and to talk about what can be done to combat it. she is the spokesperson for the "tune in to hep c" campaign, sponsored by the american liver foundation and merck. here to talk about the campaign and, if we are lucky, to grace us with a few bars of her musical history, please give a national press club welcome to the one and only natalie cole. [applause] >> well, thank you so much, and thank you to the national press

club for having made. -- having me. i did not realize you were such a prestigious group. [laughter] i am very honored to be here. it is really very unusual when i think of the journey that i've taken to end up here today. it is not always the good stuff that ends you up in places like this. sometimes it is the challenges. if you are lucky to have a victory over those challenges, that can end you in a prestigious environment like this. again, thank you for having me. as you know, you know what i do. i sing, i sing my heart out, i love every minute of it. i've had a really, really fortunate career for the last 30-plus years.

i would say that i did not imagine that my world crumbling hall -- a world would come to such a crumbling halt in 2008, although in the late 1970's and early 1980's, i was already at epitaphs. when i got into drugs, i was a young woman. i was probably in my early 20s. i was in the hippie culture. we were doing things that we thought were just fine. never imagining -- wrere jsut imagining,ver first of all, that some of us would no longer be here, and

that there would be consequences to our actions. i was a drug user, i was a heroin user. isn't it extraordinary what god can do when you look at me now? when i was diagnosed with hepatitis c, i had to flash back to that life, and i was using dirty needles, because of the environment at the time that heroin spawned. it is generally a rock and roll environment, mostly folks in the music business, hippie environment, and the hepatitis c was like the kiss of death. when my doctor told me i had it 25 years later, i just cannot believe it. i was in absolute shock, that this disease could live inside my body. it was absolutely extraordinary.

i had no symptoms. i was pretty much a health n ut. worked out at least 20 years of my life. when my doctor told me that i had hep c, i was just floored. i asked him how since this virus was able to live inside my body is a lot, what if i kept on going and did not do anything about it? he set, "eventually you will get very, very sick." so i had to really face myself, my consequences. for many, hep c is -- you can tattoos, unthrough sterilize needles, blood transfusions. we did not know that back in the

day. this is why i would say that it was my choice to do what i did, and that i ended up with hep c, but the consequences are still the same. the liver is still damage. eventually you get very sick. i had not many options. i am the kind of person that kind of wants to deal with it and get it over with. i went on a treatment that was very, very challenging. i continue to work, but it was very difficult. i lost about 25 pounds, i was in a wheelchair, i was sick every single day. i would have to say that the attitude of someone who is ill

is 80% of your ability to get past it. i never asked, why me? i want to encourage all the people that we are going to hopefully be able to touch and approach, starting here, that your attitude about your treatment is what is going to help you get through this. we have a great, great campaign that i am so glad that merck pharmaceuticals and the american liver foundation has approached me, as well as gregg allman from the allman brothers -- we have a great campaign called "tune into hep c." my role is to erase the stigma

of what it means to have hepatitis c. there are so many people that you have it that are ashamed. there are people out there who know that folks have it, at half make them feel ashamed. this is no longer a disease to feel ashamed of. i don't know if you remember back in the day when depression -- nobody wanted to talk about depression. i tell people started coming forward, celebrities. -- until people started coming forward, celebrities. we know the power of celebrity. magic johnson came forward with hiv. shocked us all, but somehow give us a little bit of leverage -- "well, is it can happen to him, it can happen to anybody." the fact that he faced it so gracefully was something that we all took notice of, and more people started coming forward. listed not -- the stigma of hiv

is better than what we're talking about to be, hep c. has serious stigma hovering over it, and we have got to get rid of it, because people are dying of it, a liver transplants are not easy to get, and we have to deal with this particular disease -- this is probably the one that is the most difficult one to erase the stigma. we are going to need your help to do that. has also inserted solving really cool -- the campaign has also inserted something really cool. on the website, tuneintohepc.com, they have put together an interactive guide,

so that people who have the disease, who think they have it, who know somebody who has it, who used to have it, they can go on his website and they can ask questions. it is an interactive the site. they can have some answer them, have someone talk to them, they can talk to doctors, physicians about this disease. it is just amazing. i did not have that. when i had my situation, i was on chemo, the form of treatment that i was on, for about seven months. i was such a wreck the whole time. there was a little number on my little medicine dispenser, this little 1-800 no. i could call if i needed somebody to talk to. i call that number but a law -- i call that number a lot.

i would always get someone wonderful. someone who really understood. it was really amazing. i had to give myself injections once a week. i was not very good at it. it was kind of nerve wracking. i would call this number and the lady would talk me through it every time. it was really amazing. i went to japan, against my family's wishes, while in the midst of doing these injections. i can tell you, it was quite an experience to try to get through wheelchair.m my i managed to do 10, so, ok. and then something wonderful happened this past july.

because music is what i do, and music is kind of who i am, and i love it so, and i always like to do different kinds of things, i had the opportunity to do a concert with the allman brothers. gregg allman and i had never met, but he fell in love right away. -- we fell in love right away. [laughter] he had just had a liver transplant, and he has a quiet, shy kind of guy, but which is why i am standing up here, because he would never do this. [laughter] nevertheless, we had so much fun. it was at the beacon theater. inside the theater were advocates for hep c, patients still

dealing with it, some of the rockers -- david crosby -- i --'t want to out everybody we were all out there giving our best. it was really an amazing concert, not only because the night was amazing, but because of the response afterwards. and the next 24 to 48 hours, it was just amazing. it is really something,, what the power of celebrity can do, not just because you are a celebrity, but because you have been there. that is why i am able to stand up in front of you today, because i don't think i would have had a passion, i don't think i would have taken the time to have the knowledge, if i had not experienced it myself. you don't have to go through but there's something

about having been there that makes it so much more important. and i just really -- very concerned about -- someone asked me in an interview this morning about the lawmakers -- "are you going to talk to lawmakers? hopefully, they are going to do something." i am like, you know what they can do? they can change this frickin' health insurance situation. i have friends who were not in the business, 9-to-5ers, regular people, who are still struggling with their children and their allies to get quality insurance. if they had a hep c experience,

i mrap heard it would be able to afford it. i am not a doctor, but my treatment was not cheap. i am just wondering, as well as getting the word out about hep c, what else we can do as far as trying to change the face of the health world. these people are not going to be able to have access to the treatment, because they don't have the money. why is it that 40 million people don't have health insurance? they can not afford it. it is a bit of a dilemma. but it does not stop us from certainly going forward. we need to be able to give access to patients of hep c, we need to start questioning our

doctors' market people let go in for a checkup don't necessarily get liver checkups. most people in this room get regular checkups, if you go at all up to your doctor. it is not something he would even ask if you wanted more people are saying, "could you give me an hiv test?" now we have got to start saying, check my liver. you don't know. because it is a silent disease, you don't know it could be living inside your body. i encourage you to get the word out to the doctors to question our doctors. god, they don'tu know everything, they are kind of flying by the wing of their butt, too. you find this out when you are a patient. it is very interesting, how much

your doctor doesn't know. i think i just want to say that this country is still a great country. but of all the countries on the planet, it has got the worst health care in the world. part of that is part of what today with this hep c business. nobody is paying a lot of attention, people are dying, there is not a lot of livers to go around. we just want to raise the awareness and reduce the stigma at the same time. my question to you is, can you help us? will you help us? it is very dear to my heart, because i know the pain that is

suffered, and i do know some people that have been contracted with the disease. and he is a very, very painful journey -- it is a very, very painful journey great if we come to you. you guys have a lot of power and a lot of leverage. this is a room full of very valuable assets here, and i'm really, really hoping that you will do whatever tex so that we can -- that you would do whatever it takes so that we can really get excited and we can really do something about this. we have a psa announcement that is coming out, and i am very happy about that, finally. when will it be out now? in about two weeks? i hope so. [laughter] i just recorded a radio psa as

well. i think that when people hear -- a lot of people kind of know what i have been through, but when they here's the details of what it is like, what you go through, and if you can come out on the other side, it is possible. this is a treatable disease, but it needs more research, and it needs more -- it needs to take a blanket off an early confront it -- and really confronted with a better attitude and what we have seen. a lot of people are getting -- afraid to go see their doctors, afraid to tell their families, like they are embarrassed. unless you arwere a drug user,

this is not your fault. if you were a drug user, well, i accept the responsibility of what consequence i have had to pay. but for the most part, this is a disease that comes from just a bad, bad stuff -- a blood transfusion. now we are all going to be freaked out about getting a blood transfusion. but that's just what it is. until they find a cure, we have a lot of treatment that we hope will be the answer to dealing with this. again, the interactive tool on the website, is something that you ought to take a look at. it this is great for family members as well, so that they can feel not as uncomfortable

dealing with their loved ones who may have it. or vice versa. people in general are turning more to the internet for information on health, but a lot of times they don't know where to look. or they don't know if it is credible. we are here to say that it is. i have no problem representing this company or the american liver foundation, who have done wonderful, wonderful things through the years. but, you know, it takes someone like me to get the word out. i don't know why that is, but that is just the society that we live in. again, i wish that even three years ago i had known about the things that are available now. but that is ok.

the best part is that my liver because of thed treatment i went through. we do have copies of these materials, and there is additional information about the "tune into hep c" campaign. i encourage you to take a look at it. i think i need to do some thank yous. have i talked long enough? [laughter] ok, i would like to do some thank yous. first of all, again, to my partners, the american liver foundation and merck. they are the ones that are bringing this campaign to life. i'm just kind of the little puppet that goes wherever they tell me to.

i want to thank, of course, the national press club for inviting me to speak here today. i would also like to acknowledge the work that the department of health and human services is doing as well. they have developed a viral hepatitis action plan, which includes such for improving the prevention, treatment, and care for people with a viral hepatitis, and trying to move the nation towards achieving, you know, healthy people. the goal is that i 2020, we will have eradicated many of these diseases. wouldn't that be something? finally, i would like to take a moment to thank -- where is the doctor? -- because he is the one that can answer all the medical stuff. i don't know what was in that treatment that i talktook.

my particular treatment was interfuron. i would not recommended, but if it works, i would recommend it. very difficult treatment, very, very difficult, but very full of results. i'm here today because of it. there are organic and herbal treatments. they take longer. that is one of the setbacks. but that is ok. and the doctor would be able to answer all the medical questions. i don't have any bright quote to end this with, other than to done.t's just get it [laughter]

thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you, natalie. that was wonderful. the way this works is -- that would be fine, but they would fire me. thank you for those inspiring and very personal and touching remarks. there are a lot of questions about the subject that you talk about that we will touch on immediate, and then we will talk about your career and thoughts along those lines. let's talk about the campaign that you affirmed at the speech today, and the focus is on raising awareness encouraging patients to see a doctor and screening and treatment. this is a relatively new campaign. now that you had a chance to reflect on this illness, how have you seen awareness and attitudes change, just in the short amount of time that you have been witnessing it yourself

so personally? >> i would probably say from my own perspective, as someone who is experiencing this on a daily basis, that people look at me differently not because there was, like, some things over my head, like some stain of "ooh, stay away from her," but more like, "that is natalie cole, she has hep c, she is in a wheelchair, and she is still singing." as a regular person, sitting in the audience, if i saw that, i would be like, "hey, that is pretty cool. that is amazing. could i do that? could i encourage someone to do that is a " i think it is about your attitude. i hope to see some changes.

the advocates, what they take from when i speak with them, what they take from whatever i am saying, is that they will be able to issue is not just go to your doctor and get screening, but check your attitude. don't do the "why me?" that will make you crazy. >> i am curious, because as you talked about a concert that you participated in, in my lifetime, i don't remember a lot of other people, people who of such immediate awareness in name as you do, or least your peers, with every step forward in such an aggressive one --. who have ever step forward in such an aggressive way. what made you decide to into legacyyour musical with a cause you feel so deeply

about it you like you're not to talk about your next album, which is usually for someone in your possession, or to talk about your new book, and left it it up with-- laugh leno. what made you do that? >> by the time the merck people can to make, i had been through chemo, a kidney transplant, and my sister died on the same day as my kidney transplant. i just felt like i had been through enough tough stuff that i can do this, i can talk about this, and really inspire someone. that is why i did it. >> when you talk about the st

those of us who have not been through what you have been through, can you flesh that out a little bit more? how do people who are not celebrities, who by their very nature are given opportunities to do the things that other people in society are not able to do -- someone who is not a celebrity, what kind of a stigma of they facing? >> i can only imagine that the normal joe or sally that has to deal with something like this, it is a very lonely disease. i think that unless you have the support of family and friends, unless you have a medical health giver to go to, you are alone. you are alone and you're scared. you don't know what your future holds.

that is what i think it's the burden that many people carry that you have this disease -- that do have this disease and are reluctant and afraid to talk about it. they don't have any resources. >> you talk a little bit about access to care in your speech, essentially saying that the treatment options at access to care are not where they need to be. for members of the general public who may not have health care coverage, what are they up against? >> i can answer that question only so much. i think the doctor would probably answer that better. i don't know. again, without certain resources, if you are just discovered that you have got hep

c, and the way you discovered it is the way i discovered it, you go in for a routine exam or something, some blood work, and boom, they're a is, you are asking yourself "what why do next? i think that anyone with access -- "what do i do next?" i think that anyone with access to computer can go online and look up hep c and it will take you to tuneintohepc.com and there will be answers there that were not there three years ago. in a lot of people are free to go to the doctor. they are in denial, they don't money, but there

were the reasons are -- whatever the reasons are. >> i understand there is a movement under foot now to not only screen people are at high risk, but people -- but to screen people much the same as they screen people with hiv. >> absolutely. this thing that we call the stigma -- hiv still has a bit of a stigma. it is not totally rah-rah, but it has done so much better over the past -- let's just say five years. if we can get the concept of hepatitis c to that level, would be so much further ahead. it is valuable and important that we approach hep c with the

same kind of aggressiveness that we have with hiv. there is no reason why we cannot have some similar positive results and continued to find a treatment. >> the way our culture and behavior said changed over the years, i understand that it could be someone who does something as innocent, relatively speaking, as an ear piercing, it could be a mother who had a blood transfusion. that is not someone who stuck a needle in the arm. is this someone who thought they were going through their everyday life. -- that is someone who thought they were going to their everyday life. is a littleght it on the scary side trip in the doctors' offices, you get a little paranoid. but our county hospitals are not kept up as well as -- i don't of the hospitals here in d.c., but

hospitals in los angeles, ucla, usc, but there is a county hospital, maybe they are not as -- you now? if you're going to get a test, go to a place that you know has the best testing. it does not necessarily have to be costly. again, that information would be on the website. >> we talked about your substance abuse years ago. what was your own sense of the potential health risks to yourself? was there an awareness that you could be putting yourself at risk of hepatitis c, or was it just a lifestyle that everybody thought would be ok? >> living my life, kicking up my

heels, not a care in the world trade fo. for us ex-drug people, we have a side of life that many have not seen. we have seen death, right in front of our face, and for some reason it passes us by. when i was getting high, all that stuff, i probably od'd two or three times. never thought twice about it. i was concerned about the headlines. "nat king cole's daughter found under the sink of in's apartment -- a neighbor's apartment." but i still put the needle in my

arm. you don't think of down the road. you are thinking of tests that moment. -- just that moment. i cannot tell how many people i lost during that time d. >> given the prevalence of the abuse in the entertainment community? >> it is hard to say. at least back in the day we had good drugs. [laughter] i am serious. the quality of the cocaine, the quality of thae heroin, did not have poison in it, did not have rat poison in it. these days kids are taking ecstasy -- i don't even know what half the stuff is that they are taking. this is laced with stuff. they don't even know what is in

eight. that is why they i die and the white they -- they are dying the way they are. a different culture we are seeing now. maybe not as many heroin uses, i don't know. but the ecstasy, the meth, these are part of what drugs that could affect some kind of -- these are powerful drugs that could affect some kind of organ in their life. >> in essence, it was almost glorified in the 1970's and maybe the early 1980's. now not so much, though? >> no. in the 1970's, some of the most well-known record producers had drawers of cocaine. managers would go out and get it for the artists. if you did not get high, i

wouldn't hire you. you could not even be in my circle. it was a whole nother thought process. >> big party. >> it was a big party. and then it went from being fun to not so fine. folks started dying, we started freaking out, thankfully we got to rehab in time. >> where did it turn from "it's a party" to "something has to be done"? >> probably when i had my son. something goes on in your brain as you are going to get a bag of heroin and cocaine and you have your son with you, and he has

two, -- is two, in pajamas, and you take him on your drug run. i had awareness, but i did not do anything about it. there were way too many events that should have turned out ugly and bad. i could have lost my son. i wrote about this in my book. my son fell in the pool, i was getting high, i had people who did not know how to swim. did i stop? no. there were a lot of those. did i stop? no. it is really by the grace of god that i am here. >> what is it that got you into rehab, in terms of a particular event? >> i went to rehab twice.

the first time, it was interesting, because the facility i went to was in california. they knew nothing about drug disease or drug addiction. they thought it was a psychological or psychiatric problems. you were crazy, needed psychiatric help. needless to say, i was there for 30 days and 30 minutes after i left, i was back at it. the second time i went, the people that approach me were not my family members, but my attorney, my business manager my accountant, and i cannot remember the fourth person. i think there was a fourth person -- >> it was the gravy train. >> the suits came to my house. it was so unusual for them to

say, "we really care about you, we have a lot of respect for you, but we're not going to be able to represent you anymore, because you are going to be dead." i was just like it, what? who are you? my mother could not get me to do it. my sister could not talk me into it. for some reason, what they did -- something clicked in here. >> that serious. >> and i was on my way to hazelton. >> it was a blessing. some people say, why can you do to encourage more african- americans to get into research studies saw that the drugs can help more people? >> these two ladies, particularly yu, who was a newspaper that goes to the black community, at top of up to

it if you want to do an interview, we can do an interview. make it addressed to the black community, because we don't go to the doctor very often. i can get on their case a lot. i would be happy to talk to you afterwards. >> very good. somebody asked from the audience, won't hep c patients be covered by the american health care act, which forbids denial of thhealth care based on pre-existing conditions? is that helping? >> beats me. >> ok, fair anenough. [laughter] you are not having to qualify people for health care. this is obviously a personal statement from someone in our audience -- "i thank you for putting your warm, beautiful face for the cause of hep c. for someone to relapsed during

treatment, what is on the horizon for tests for marke and rs and responsive treatment?" >> that is a medical question. i wish i could answer it, but i don't know. tuneintohepc.com. if you cannot find any 9% of the answers you are looking for, -- 99% of the answers to looking for, tell the people and they will do it. >> how did you keep your voice strong why you were undergoing treatment? -- while you were undergoing treatment? >> i think the reason my voice state more or less in decent shape, because it is a gift. it did not have anything to do with my disease.

it's still just stayed there. it was there for me when i needed it. >> you must be extremely grateful. >> i am so grateful. >> you have worked as a recording artist, actress, author. that is a pretty rich, creative portfolio. people would like to know, when you not working on this important project, what are you doing these days to serve the creative side of your personality? another recording, and think along those lines -- anything along those lines? >> i just believe that god sends me where i needed. especially since i have been ill, which is only the last three years. when i look back on my career, i believe that god sends me where

i have been needed. the fact that i continue to work is amazing to me. that what igo do isd-- that whas considered a viable. there is still so much that i have not done, and yet i am very happy with what i have done. a lot, ande community camelo i think is important when people just like you as a person. forget about what you do. if they can just get you a little bit as a person, that goes a long way. when i have to speak on things, , don't come off like an idiot because i have either been there or i am talking to people and i'm hearing what they are saying and i am carrying that

message forward. i just believe in being real and just letting this -- letting what i do do what is supposed to do. >> a lot of people think about the legacy of your father, was still seems very much a relevant part of pop culture. christmas shopping in the mall, you cannot help but hear -- >> oh, god, i know. [laughter] it's so embarrassing, telling you. >> tell me why . >> because if you go into a mall, which has several stores, every store is playing my dad's songs. if i hear "chestnuts --" i turn around. [laughter] >> seems like it should qualify you for a discount.

you obviously embraced your father's talent, in the sense that you performed with him, even though he passed away tragically at an early age. how often is your father's musical talent, and that of your mother, with you on a day-to-day basis? >> i would say all the time. i rely on that to help me make decisions about the music i want to sing, the future music i want to do, or what is the best road for me to take, depending on what the goal is? if i want to reach a certain audience, then there are certain songs, to sing. my dad -- when i realized after all these years that my dad still make people smile, when they tell me, "i am such a big fan of your father's," there is

a healing that took place when my father was singing, and it is still there. some of that was passed on to me -- that's what people say. i think that is an amazing quality. that is why i know is a gift. >> and yet he was such a groundbreaker in many ways. part, ands the race he hosted a television show, may have been the first black man to post a television show. >> he was not making a political statement. he was just happy to have his tv show. we would sit and watch it, for 15 minutes, and all he would say about it after the sponsors pulled the show, because they were just too scared to have a

black person with that kind of power, because he was getting a lot of power, and the sponsors will the show, and the only thing my dad had to say about it is "i guess madison avenue is afraid of the dark." [laughter] i thought that was up will statement to make. my dad was not a political person. he was thrown into a number of times when he was asked to perform in front of audiences that were segregated. that was not his thing, even though he was from alabama, montgomery, alabama, and he was segregation was. but he was not going to -- and he knew what segregation wise. but he was not going to let that dictate his career. he got into scuffles about it. people throw things at him, they would boo him, but he would say, "i don't sing in front of a

segregated audience. i sing in front of everybody." >> to keep the bipartisan tradition going, we are in washington, d.c., with barack obama as president. and with an african-american leading in some polls for president -- >> oh, cain. >> what would your father have thought? >> he would be fascinated. he would have been absolutely glued to the television watching this. i think that we -- the black people that i certainly know -- pretty cleaglued regardless of the results, the idea that we've gotten this far is an amazing bit any ethnicity can say that when a they c one of their own debt out there like that. it is the coolest thing.

it is a beautiful thing, and it gives us hope that we can all do something great, no matter who we are. i think is just unfortunate that president obama has had some much -- you have to pardon me, but i have to say it's like i see it -- he has had so much shit thrown at him. i am not happy about it. yes, i voted for him to it but i don't think any one man, black, white, purple, can turn this country around in four in years. they just have to get off this case and let him do what he do. i would think just for the consistency -- now he knows what to do. now he knows. this man was very young when he

came into office. he did not know at the stop that was coming to him. i started looking at cain and i thought, hmm, where the hell did he come from? [laughter] but at the same time, give him a break, too. we are in an interesting time of our lives right now. anything can happen. why not? i don't know what the republicans would think, but -- [laughter] it would be an extraordinary thing if cain ended up the front runner. right now i am very pleased that obama came into this environment. i am glad that we have a black president. it showed us just how prejudiced we really are, ok?

they have basically blamed this man for everything. they really take such potshots at him. it is really not fair. give him another four years and let him get it right. [laughter] >> we are almost out of time. i would like to remind our guests about upcoming speakers. at the intersection of what we have been talking about today -- october 24, tmz's harvey levin. october 31, herman cain will be our guest speaker. [laughter] >> no coincidence that it is on halloween? [laughter] >> that is when he could make it. before our last bestharv would like to present -- before our last question, i would like to present a token of our appreciation. the npc coffee mug.

given your father's death from cancer and your addiction, what advice would you give obama about smoking? we don't want him to smoke as president. >> no, we don't. can you blame him, though? [laughter] >> your father did it die from a cigarette smoke. >> he did. what were they called -- lucky strikes? he had a cigarette holder, that filter, that did not do him any good. he was a very heavy smoker. i would not want to tell obama. i think he is a smart enough men to know -- it may just be really

tough for him. i was smoking up until about six months ago. i stopped because i could not hit all of my notes. i would hate something like that to happen before -- i can tell you i was not that big of a smoker, but within 30 days of not smoking, it came back. my voice. >> how about a round of applause for our guest speaker today? [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] >> thank you for coming today. like to thank our national press club staff. thank you. we are adjourned.

>> in about half an hour, we will be live on capitol hill for a hearing on concussions in sports and the marketing of anti-concussions sports equipment to athletes and their parents. tom udall has asked the federal trade commission to investigate misleading safety claims and deceptive practices by makers to claim their helmets reduce concussions. that is at 2:30 eastern and we will have that live on c-span. in the meantime, a look at education measures coming up in congress with the head of the american federation of teachers

from this morning's "washington post." guest: i don't understand the discussion in washington today. all you have to do is walk into one school district and you see the cuts have been used over the course of the last few years. collectively, they've been huge. 300,000 educators have lost their jobs. there are less art, music, physical education -- the courses kids need for science

and math. 500 of the 2000 teachers in yonkers were laid off. kids who have had foiled a prekindergarten which has worked to help prepare them, they cannot afford it anymore. they say we need art back. we need music back. i was in a science lab were kids were in there like sardines. all you have to do is go to a local school and you see the effects of the budget cuts. why the congress, why the senate blocked the bill last week, i don't understand. thank god harry reid and others are putting up that teacher piece of it and first responders piece this week. hopefully some of the senators to block it will come to their senses. $35 billion. what that would mean is to put people back to work.

cumulatively, i think it could put 400,000 people back to work. but teachers back to work, first responders -- the whole bill would put 109 million people back to work. talk to parents, students, teachers and educators across the country. do you see how these budget cuts hurt. >> is that specifically to teachers? >> it includes teacher support as well. it includes people who are needed to help kids go to college. it includes educators support. it is modeled after the last time this was done a couple of years ago -- this helped put people back to work. all across the country, teachers have been subsidizing budget cuts. we see furloughs' across the country, wage freezes across the country, increases in teachers

are taking on. de are subsidizing what is going on. they want kids to succeed, but we need some help. host: so if they get the money and are able to go back to work, how long would they be able to stay at work? guest: $35 billion is a one-shot deal. it's a stimulus. ultimately, what we have seen is a fitting get people back to work now and make sure schools work well now, that is really important because kids do not get do overs. they cannot get to decide i'm going to be born during a great time as opposed to being born during a recession. you don't get to be five years old again. if you hear urgency in my voice, it is because it is clear resources are needed to put people back to work. >> this is part of the president's job effort.

what is the republican support behind this piece? guest: i don't understand. before we had this high octane, let's do everything to get the president out of office, you had some republican support last time this was voted on a couple of years ago. but that entire block blocking the vote last week, i don't understand it. hopefully there will be some republican support because the schools in the nation need this. i don't need it. kids need it. parents need it. we talk a lot about how we have to help kids. host: if it does get past, how does the money get billed out? guest: the money gets a portion terms of need and a population. for example, the states that

have the highest title one eligible kids, poor kids, will get a disproportionate amount because the states that have the greatest need. but it is also a portion in terms of population. host: if you like to ask questions, you can give us a call at the numbers on your screen. we have set aside a special line for educators this morning, if you want to ask a question. where is the aft support for the president these days? guest: what the president has done in terms of this jobs bill and at refocusing the country on how to get people back to work and create economic and educational opportunity in a

time like we have never seen is terrific and we are for square in support of that. if you are asking about endorsements and things like that, we have a process. we talked to our members, we polled our members. we have been talking about what to do in terms of the coming alexian, and i suspect after we see -- after the election, and i suspect after the primaries and the republican party, we will talk to our members about making an endorsement. host: testing of teachers for quality? >> we believe in teacher evaluations. i have been resolute as have my members about the need to have real teacher evaluations. they should be multiple- measured, they should be about what teachers are teaching and what students are learning. there are some districts in the

country doing a good job -- new haven, conn., pittsburgh, pennsylvania. we have to focus high- performance, but we have to give the teachers the tools and conditions they need to do their jobs and understand a cannot do it all. poverty -- that is two-thirds of the achievement gap. host: when it comes to the race of it -- when it comes to the race to the top initiative? guest: in some states, we have worked with them closely and others we have not. raced to the top was a piece of the first stimulus bill, about $4 billion. out of about $100 billion. it said two states that if your willing to apply for this money, you are going to get it under the following conditions. part of the conditions were to create data-driven evaluation systems, a focus on data, focus

on collaboration in terms of evaluation, focus on turning around low-performing schools, and then there was a piece about what you're going to do in terms of charters. there were pieces about race of the top without good and are pieces with our troublesome. for example, we thought raced to the top, you're going to focus on education issues, the most important, everybody agrees, prekindergarten, early childhood. when you have pre case services for kids, kids are more prepared for school. that was not part of the original race to the top. things like community schools like they're doing in cincinnati where you are focusing on the whole child instead of math and english. that was not part of the original ray's to the top. so there were pete -- original race to the top. there are parts that are good and their unions engaged in it. take tennessee, the evaluation

systems put into place, not so good. what as happened in tennessee in the last few weeks, people have said we have to change this. what is happening is it is taking time from teachers from their teaching and they basically become checklist makers in terms of bureaucratic processes as opposed to teaching and learning. host: richmond va on the educators line. caller: the discussion has been about the president. the major discussion needs to be about congress itself. we're at the issue again and i want to see which felt about this. whether or not this is still an issue in congress about have and have-nots because, when you look at the school districts that each congressman, their children are in or other senators are in, they are in really

excellent public school districts or private schools, one or the other. when you tend to have your own family and your own circumstances live within a bubble, such as these public schools in these very high and come districts -- high-income district, i think you have a skewed view of education in the sense of the needs of what needs to be out there in the sense of money. because if you go with in the city school districts, such as perhaps the richmond city school district, you will see a huge disparity. the people who blocked the jobs bill last week were essentially the entire republican party. you are right. kids to have an east lead the

most -- kids to have the least need of the most. what we are seeing around the country is more than main street, lots of places, we are seeing increased poverty, we are seeing increased unemployment, we are seeing increased instability. in that situation, kids actually need their schools to be more stable places. they need more resources. that is why we focus on wraparound services for kids, but that cost some money. i think you are right because of we get our elected officials actually into schools, spend a day with a teacher, look at what is going on a policy what we're trying to do to help all kids succeed, not just some kids, and see what we are trying to do in schools all across the country, particularly in impoverished areas. host: a question off of twitter --

guest: this whole funding issue has to be debunked. the nation's we compete with actually spend 5% or 10% less than we do. but what they also do is they do not send money in terms of special needs kids the way we do. what also happens is health and welfare benefits that school systems spent here, they spent nationally. so when you look at the nation's that outcome ps, there may be a differential of 5% parton%. -- when you look at the nations compete us. if you want to help kids, especially special needs kids, have to spend money. i'm not saying every single dollar has spent wisely and i

would like to see more money spent in classrooms. but i have seen with my own two eyes all across the country right now that kids are suffering. when we do not have music in schools for kids, we're not helping kids prepare for mathematics. what we do not have the vocational technology programs, we are not preparing kids for careers. when the band with in the school district is so low you can only have one computer on at a time like a sock in mcdowell county west virginia, we are not preparing kids. resources are needed right now. spending better, absolutely. but they are needed right now. host: a call from north carolina on the republican line. go ahead. caller: i'm republican, but i want you to know i sympathize

with teachers 190%. especially young kids. you have 40 or 50 young kids in a class, that's a lot to deal with. in elementary skit -- in elementary school, there shouldn't be more than 25 in a class. i sympathize with your plight. i don't know if you are still a teacher or if you are just ahead of the union or whatever it is -- guest: i wished i still talk. i taught for six years in brooklyn, new york part-time and full-time and i wish i had time to teach because i love it. caller: i look back at my -- i look back of my elementary years and i loved them. high school, junior high, not quite so much. i am 53, so you imagine that teachers liked to whip your butt

back in those days. guest: we are the same age, sir. host: what is your question? caller: i don't know how much pay in union dues and i don't care what your salary is. but can you put $10 per person per union dues? guest: this is what we do -- teachers in our union subsidize schools all the time. we were in mcdowell county a couple of weeks ago and our union matched some of the work they were doing to make sure kids in that district at library books. i see that kind of situation all the time. teachers spend out of their own pockets hundreds of not thousands of dollars a year to subsidize their kids' education. but you said it right -- education is a bipartisan issue. this should not be a democrat or republican issue.

it should be a bipartisan issue. host: i want to read a tweed and an e-mail. guest: two things. in the united states of america, we actually believe in teaching all kids, some kids. what the market does, it is great for niches. when you want to have a niche market, when you want to help some and you believe in some kind of trickle-down theory. the kids we have to care about the most are the ones that need the most and market theology does not help in that situation. in fact, in the united states,

education is probably the only sector where we say all kids, not some kids, should have a decent education. don't believe me, forget about my ideology. let's look at the evidence. we have had a charter schools, we have had a choice situations for the last 20 years. what we have seen in terms of the evidence, and those were supposedly market based theories, the last big study of charter schools that 83% and not -- 83% of them do not do as well or at do as well as public schools. 17% do better. 34% to worse. there should be private schools, there should be competition, let them do what they want to do. my job is to work as hard as i can to make sure public education is the best it can be

and every single parent has a neighborhood school in which to send his or her child that he or she thinks is a great school. host: our guest serves as of the head of the american federation of teachers. our next call is on the democrats' line. caller: thank you for letting me be here to discuss this issue. i feel, as a teacher -- i am retired now -- but it is a political issue, but parties can never agree. the american federation of teachers, i'm a union supporter and the reason i support them, i was in a union, just a small union in florida. they had all walkout. i walked out. i loved kids. i was trying to seek more support. there could be no agreement. the politicians don't agree, the

parents don't agree. everybody has got their own purpose in mind. however, as i see it from past experience, we had a governor at that particular time when we had the walkout, he would not support us at all. it had nothing to do with politics, he just believed to do that way. it's too bad the union doesn't have all the power to make the decisions that need to be made for the help of kids. an army of support people who are going to help, we are throwing our hands up and forget it all. it's too bad. i put my son through a private school because of the fact he had a learning disability. now, he works, he likes to work. he drives a truck, goes around to shredding companies and takes papers and has them shredded.

he loves his work. he is not afraid of work. if i had to do it over again, i would teach him the same way. go ahead and work. guest: i sympathize with what the gentleman said. i'm not all that sure strikes are the way to solve these problems anymore. i think we have to work together, have the community work together, principals work together, work together with parents. but what the gentleman is actually saying is the education of children is complex stuff. if there was a silver bullet that would work to educate kids in america, particularly since we know how important it is individually as well as for our collective future, it would have been done. there are no silver bullets. but you have to do three, four, five things at the same time and have to be managed well. yet to focus on teacher quality,

curriculum, -- you have to focus on teacher quality. you have to have a quality environment that is mission- driven and yet to make sure the kids who are falling behind our help and we have the kind of wraparound services they need. all of that has to happen at the same time. the schools that do that, you see them doing well. the districts that do that, they are doing very well. there is no silver bullet in education. at a time like that -- at a time like this, people wish they were. host: this is from twitter -- guest: it is not fair to teachers, but that is to teachers are. is the only job i know in the world where people actually subsidize the work they're doing. what we try to do in new york city was we had a program that has been suspended because of

the budget cuts called teachers choice. we asked the city council to figure out a stipend for each teacher which they would use directly for supplies for kids. they were paying $2,000 out of their own pockets for kids. that is who we are. host: a call on the republican line. caller: i live in pennsylvania and lived through a teachers' strike and it brings the neighborhood to its knees. i can tell you the difference between public school and private school. private school teachers make very little money, less than half the salary of the public school teacher. my neighbor happens to be a good teacher and happens to be a -- makes a six-figure salary

and teaches in the public school system and is not allowed to tutor children on school property. has to tutor them in the public library or at the child's home. charges $60 an hour. i had a child who is taking ap calculus in a private high school in this area, was falling behind and the whole class was falling behind. the teacher had a six-hour session in her home for free. that is a private school teacher. my son could not attend that because he was visiting the college she was going to attend. the following week, she tutored him after school every day for free. i feel we need a voucher system because my kids, the first week of school in private school, they get the teachers home phone number. my kids have sent text messages to teachers in private school. you never see that in public

schools. know what's cool you are talking about. my mom was a schoolteacher for 30 years and i've been a schoolteacher for a while as well, as i said earlier. most teachers i know spent time well after school, do the kind of to bring you are talking about and things like that. most teachers, if ever gone on strike, they never want to go on strike. strikes are a last resort. my mom went on strike once and the district never went on strike again. hopefully we can solve issues without going on strike but let's get to the tutoring issue. under no troubles behind, tutoring was set aside for private entities. for the last 10 years, teachers could not due to during officially on school time because of the set aside in terms of notes are left behind.

that is one of the things we're trying to change. having said that, a lot of teachers to tutoring after school and a lot of them do it at their homes or do it as a second job. all lot of them do it for free. host: the education committee according to the op ed in the "washington post" takes up the next version of notes child left behind. senator harkin released a version and the editors say it's a foregone conclusion that the strict yardstick for adequate process will -- radical progress will be scrapped. thingsthere's a lot of that are wrong with the current no child of behind.

anyone you talk to will tell you it is broken. one of the reasons it is broken is because the accountability system right now does not work. if you see 82% of the schools, as secretary duncan has said, will be failing schools under no child left behind, you know there's something wrong with the accountability system. having said that, there needs to be a better accountability system and the harkin bill -- and this has to be done through congress. we understand why it has to be done through congress. we think that there should be -- we agree with the "washington post, that there should be more attention to accountability and there should be a 360 degree accountability system. the accountability system is basically saying it should not be focused on the lowest 5% or 10% of schools. we need to make sure there is accountability for all, but it

needs to be fair accountability for all. the point is, they actually came up with a bill and did something to keep the ball moving into have to give them credit for that. what they are trying it to is look at the problems from the past and see what we can do to improve it. but we have to make sure all kids get a great education and, to the extent esca was all about how do we help the kids who need help most, that is what we should be focusing on. host: what is the best judge of a teacher is a good teacher? guest: after nation at risk embraced standards but said it had to be done right, it cannot just be on paper.

our union has embraced the need to do teacher evaluations, not the drive by a valuations' i had when i taught -- i had a great principle, but somebody coming in 20 minutes once a year. or evaluations that are based on test data. that has never been validated, teachers based upon how well their kids do once a year -- neither one of those extremes work. what we have learned it last few years from the districts now doing it well is that it is tough to do it well -- >> you can watch "washington journal" online. we're taking you now live to a hearing on a concussion in sports and marketing of sports equipment. the senate commerce committee will hear from equipment makers and a number of organizations. that is jay rockefeller, the chairman of the commerce committee.

this hearing should get underway shortly.

>> had this hearing will come to order. it is going to be an absolutely wonderful hearing. there are 14 senators in front of you, you just can't see all of them. it's something we're working on with nasa. we have become invisible at the proper moment. i am very proud you are here and i am very proud of our two senators who are here. this one, although you would never know looking at him, is a football player -- or was, i guess i should say. i am going to make an opening statement and i wish each of the mud. we want to have plenty of time for you to talk and ask a question. i am very grateful for you being here. this is a massive subject, the story and they tell about my son is that -- have not decided

whether it is an invasion of his privacy, but you can advise me when you give your testimony. every afternoon, at the end of the school day, millions of children had to the playing fields. makeng sports doesn't just our kids stronger and healthier, it teaches them important values. they learn about hard work, leadership, living with pain, and going through it, about working together for a common goal. the camaraderie that comes out of sports units is wonderful to see. is real and it lasts forever. most of our young athletes will not end up playing at the professional level but we hope they will carry the lessons they have learned throughout life and they will. our hearing today is about the

head injuries, that tens of thousands of injuries these athletes sustain while playing the sport they love. many of us are reluctant to talk about the risks involved in playing sports because we know what a positive role the sports play in our community. on the other hand, the last thing we can do is not talk about this problem of concussions and gear and all of the rest of it. america has to have this conversation and there will be many, many hearings on it i know. in fact, more of our children should be playing sports. too many kids spend their afternoons from of the computer or television screens instead of on the sports field. that is set every day by everyone involved in health care. i'm going to give you a couple of figures. according to the latest data by the center of disease control, only 17% of american high-school students get one hour of daily physical activity. which is our current health

guidelines. they say you need to have that to stay healthy. only 17%, one-third are children, are overweight or obese which makes it more likely they will suffer from chronic health conditions like heart disease, diabetes, things that will plague them for the rest of their lives as we will be talking about today. but the risks involved in playing sports is also very, very real. we have all heard about the national football league players struggling with serious mental and physical health problems. because they sustained repeated mild dramatic brain injuries, which is what concussions are called medically. it is very, very sad. i have seen a number of these players, people i worshipped .rowing up in wheelchairs'

who was the guy who was cornerback for the raiders? the greatest interceptor of all time? woody -- doesn't matter. he was seated in a wheelchair and could not even pull his head up. i a plane down in his ear and i think i kissed him to. but from this to that, who knows. this was eight years ago and no one was talking about it. we now understand this is not an injury only nfl players can suffer. according to research conducted at the nationwide children's hospital in columbus, ohio, more than 70,000 high-school football players sustain concussions every year. it's not just a football problem. one of our witnesses today will

talk about the concussions that she suffered playing soccer in high school and college. according to nationwide children's hospital, more than 10,000 girls soccer players sustain concussions each year. what we are going to do is we are going to hear from miss ball and dr. jeffrey kutcher, the assistant professor at the department of neurology at the ever city of michigan. and dr. ann mckee, a professor of neurology and pathology at the boston university and director of the neuropathology core and alzheimer's disease center i guess at boston university. and mr. mike oliver, director of

the national operating committee on standards for athletic equipment. we welcome all of you. i will close right there and ask if the chairman of the subcommittee would wish to say something because he has been terrific on the subject. >> thank you, a chairman for holding this very important hearing this afternoon. as a former player, it is something i am interested in. but also, there are some moms and dads and coaches and players all across the country that are very interested. they probably should be more interested than what they realize. i think that is the great thing about having this hearing is to try to get that information out and discuss a potentially very serious problem. not a potential problem, a very

serious problem. sports late a vital role in the development of young men and women. they help develop social relationships and learn to work as a team while keeping them physically active and healthy and having fun. according to the national high- school sports related injury surveillance study, participation in high-school sports has almost doubled in the last 30 years. this is fantastic news and is of importance for us to highlight the benefits of playing sports. however, participation in athletics carries with it significant risk of injury. just last week, there is a news of a tragic death of a 16-rolled football player who died after sustaining a head injury during a game. it's important to everyone, coaches, parents, physicians, and the athletes themselves understand as risks and identify injuries when they -- when they occur. concussions have the potential for severe injuries and multiple

concussions can cause significant repercussions later in life as we will hear about today. especially with many media reports of a high-profile incidents in the nfl, we often associate football with concussions. concussions are a risk when playing football, but players in many sports run the risk of sustaining concussion as we will hear. it is imperative for coaches and parents involved in all sports to hear about the dangers associated with concussions and of how to recognize the signs and symptoms and what to do if a player suffered a concussion. i look forward to hearing from the doctors about the research to further the knowledge we have about concussions, but many questions remain as to the causes and effects of concussions. i'm very edges in hearing from the experts on what is known and where we can go from here. as we will also discuss, there is a wide variety of athletic

equipment on the market that claims to use concussion- reducing or concussion- preventing technology. parents want to keep their children protected, but navigating the many products and claims in the marketplace, especially on line can be overwhelming. it can be easy to read as something offers the best maximum-security protection and assume their child will be safe from injury. that is simply not true. some products may offer better protection than others, but we need to explore what resources exist to help parents and coaches know what level of safety a product will actually provide. i don't know how the average parent or coach can be confident the equipment they purchase of a genuinely offers a greater safety benefit or if its advertisement contains misleading or deceptive claims. i hope our witnesses today will be able to help me answer this question. along with knowing the safety benefits and limitations of

sports equipment, parents and coaches need to educate themselves on what to look for in the event that an athlete as a potential concussion. -- an athlete has a potential concussion. perhaps the most well-known education effort is the heads up initiative by the cdc in partnership with dozens of professional organizations and individuals. individual associations like u.s. a football have their own education campaigns for coaches and added treat -- how to teach proper executions of plays and tackles so athletes are in as little danger as possible. but the campaign's best be effective in order to effect change. i'm interested to learn if there is data that shows whether these efforts are reaching a wide enough audience and promoting awareness sufficiently. i know today's hearing will draw attention to this support and safety issue.

parents and coaches must chat -- must have the resources available to them and know how to react when one occurs. the benefits from participating in sports are many and i hope the potential for injury does not prevent anyone from playing. mr. chairman, thank you for calling this important hearing and i look forward to hearing from our witnesses. i ask unanimous consent that this statement from the sporting goods manufacturers association and u.s. a football be in the record. >> it is so done. >> with that, i yield back. >> i think the senator and call upon senator udall has been used in putting together all of this. -- who has been huge in putting together all this. >> thank you, senator rockefeller. i very much appreciate you holding this hearing today. i would ask my full statement put in the record. i greatly appreciate your efforts to promote a brain research and, as chairman of

this subcommittee, you're close attention to consumer protection issues. concussions used to be dismissed as simply being as or bell ringers. we know now that a confession is a form of dramatic brain injury that should be taken seriously. according to a recent summer for disease control report, emergency room visits for sports and recreation-related traumatic brain injury increased by 60% among children and adolescents over the last decade. the cdc attributed its rise to greater concussion awareness, which is a good thing. now that athletes, coaches, and parents have a better understanding of concussions, sports equipment makers appear to be taking advantage. there are a number of so-called "anti-concussion" and "conduct -- "concussion-reducing devices" on the market. while we should encourage innovation to protect young

athletes, we to make sure advertisers play by the rules. expert witnesses today can shed some light on "anti-concussion" claims used by some sports equipment manufacturers. now we know more about the dangers of concussion, but we should not forget how important sports and physical activity is for children. the cdc estimates only 18% of american high-school students participate in at least one hour of this collectivity a day. that's the amount recommended by the department of health and human services. among high-school students in new mexico, only 23% are getting it. this could lead to negative health consequences that last a lifetime. so we need to encourage kids to play sports, exercise, and be more physically active. injury is always a risk, but the benefits far outweigh the dangers. as we learn more about the dangers of concessions for long -- four young athletes, we can

take steps to make sure they're played more safely. i want to thank all of the witnesses for being here and testifying. i especially want to recognize miss alexis ball who traveled from albuquerque to share her experience with sports concussion. in reviewing the doctor's testimony, i find it poignance she discusses a former nfl player who tragically took his own life earlier this year. in 2007, he testified before this committee. according to news reports, he informed his family he wanted his brain to be studied and he hoped people could learn more about the affect of brain trauma so kids could play football more safely in the future. in keeping with this sentiment, hope this hearing will advance the goal of making sports safer for our children. with that, german rockefeller, thank you very much and thank you for being here -- chairman of rockefeller, thank you for

being here. >> that is a pretty powerful statement. >> thank you. >> mess alexis ball, i would like to call on you first. >> chairman rockefeller and members of the committee. i would like to thank you for inviting me here today. i'm a senior at the university of mexico and i appreciate you letting me take an advocacy role on confession awareness. i have always been a high achieving student athlete. i was a player of the year and valedictorian. my junior year in college, i was an academic all-american, captain of my team and received first-team all conference honors. however, i have accrued about as many concussions as a word i have received. i was disqualified from plane collegiate athletics in 2009. falling to concussions i sustained in the beginning of this season. >> what you are saying is so important and moving and powerful but i want you to slow

down a tiny bit. >> i'm sorry. during preseason, i was offered at opportunity for a shot from that the are. i banged it and hit my head. it was clear i had a concussion due to bid dizziness and seizures that followed. my coaches were not pleased when i call them and inform them of the concussion. in accordance to the team doctor for karmas, i sat out for a week. after that, i met with him again. he asked me if i had a concussion -- could you remember these three words. i was still experiencing headaches and about the business at the time but it was a week of the first game of want to play, thus i supplied the necessary answers to get cleared. i played for two weeks with no issues but i took a header on the top of my head. i was unable to stand up and needed assistance to leave the field. i sustained another concussion.

i returned to play. the weeks following this confession were horrible. i was playing terribly and was simply not myself. i was no longer able to sleep at night. i would fall asleep around 3:00 in the morning after laying in my bed rest of leeson's 10:00 p.m. the night before. i cannot pay attention in class. the most disturbing change is a change my personality. oregon crying -- randomly in class -- i would begin crying randomly and practice. the high achieving student athlete was permanently gone. my mom was concerned about my well-being and force me to go see a doctor. in an effort to seal is happening, i took a narrow site test. in deal -- revealed by visual memory was impacted. my doctor explained i was experiencing symptoms as a

combination of the two confessions by a sustained prior. my doctor and i talked about the status of my future. we talked about implications if i were to sustain another concussion. i have already accumulated 10 concussions in about eight years, most of which were all wearing protective head gear. the doctor concluded for the safety of my future i should hang my cleats. ultimately, i had to separate my head from my heart. concussions are a very serious [unintelligible] people talk about an athlete sustaining a concussion like it's the big deal. too often the severity of a concussion is dismissed. if an athlete sprained ankle, it is apparent externally their injured. this is not the case with concussions. a doctor or coach cannot often see physical manifestations of a concussions. many of the symptoms are not associated with the initial blow. i had no idea my insomnia or

sadness i felt could be related to an injury i sustained in months prior, which is something i want to emphasize today. athletes must be aware of a sustained a concussion, symptoms can last longer than a few days or weeks for that matter. they can last a lifetime. another issue athletes need to be aware of is the efficacy of head gear and helmets. i wore protective head gear since my second concussion in high school prayer the recommendation of my trainers. it was supposed to be a preventive measure and clearly this did not hold true. i sustained about eight concussions since wearing it. it is essential for athletes and coaches to know athletes are not free from concussions because they have protective head gear. furthermore, i believe it's important to note the mentality to return to play as quickly as possible is prevalent in the world of athletics. there's a lot of pressure on athletes to just deal with their injuries, whether they are in jeopardy of losing their starting position are playing time. it is easy to lie about your

symptoms when it comes to concussions. i knew the answers needed to return to play. no one could prove whether i had a headache or not, so i could lie. in retrospect, this is poor -- is a poor decision but i did not understand the severity of the concussion of the time. i continue to play for much longer than i should have and i most certainly return to play too quickly. people have only one brain for life. i will never regain the visual memory i one tat and i will never be able to regain the respect i lost and i struggle to the last season of soccer. concussion awareness needs to be more prevalent among coaches and athletes in our society. most coaches and athletes do not understand long-term ramifications of concussions. people need to understand wearing protective gear does not stop concussions from occurring. i want to thank you for inviting me again today to further public awareness about this in visible

injury. >> thank you. you did extremely well. mr. steven threet was at arizona university and was a started at -- a starting quarterback there and is coaching the team. >> thank you, chairman of rockefeller and other committee members for inviting me. it is a great honor to be speaking here on a topic that has changed my life and i am happy to help raise awareness about such an issue in male and female sports. dealing with concussions can be a mysterious process for the injured player in their family. it's exciting for me to see such a prestigious and cable group of individuals willing to learn more in an effort to help better educate and protect all athletes. throughout my playing career, i faced a multitude of injuries. however, and cause more confusion literally and figuratively at that time they

occurred and concussions. each of the four documented concussions i experienced were unique in the way in which they occurred. i sustained concussions from hits directly to my head by another player, from my head hitting the ground, and as a result of consecutive impact on separate place. while my symptoms were often similar, their range from slight dizziness and blurred vision to extreme light sensitivity and constant headaches. the severity of my symptoms have no recognizable patterns and in two cases, i returned to play one week after the injury i sustained and one instance, it only took me two weeks to recover. however, my final confession i suffered on november 26th, 2010, the resulting symptoms were the reason i decided to end my football playing career. during my playing days, brain injury was never a major concern to me. after my first concussion which happen on the first play of the high school game my senior

season, was able to start the next game. it wasn't until my son does became serious that my attitude change. when i decided to retire, i saw my decision simply as the right one to make. however, in the aftermath, has become apparent that my decision can be seen as an example of how dangerous brain injury is. i want to make clear my goal in speaking is not to deter athletes from competing. i'll you wish they would acknowledge the seriousness of brain injury and respect the process that comes with the recovery. in all sports, a certain aggressive mentality is required to be successful. the passion and intensity of a football player is an example of this and is i think what makes the game beautiful. as a former quarterback apricots football programs, i know the importance of and took pride in being physical and mentally tough and outworking my opponent and playing through injury. however, athletes must understand mild brain injury is not a mild shoulder separation. it is not an injury to be played

through. they must understand plain three brain injuries not a sign of toughness but a sign that athletes are uninformed on the topic. statistics have revealed about 30% of athletes who sustained a concussion return to play too early and 50% go unnoticed. this makes me believe the only focus should be to create an open dialogue between athletes, coaches, doctors, and families that address the seriousness of brain injuries and athletics and the need for a full recovery before return to play. i know is possible to decrease those statistics and i no progress on this issue is already being made in many states that have passed legislation in dealing with a concussion protocol. unfortunately, there is no brain brace, there is no concussion- proof, or magic pill for remedial recovery. however, i believe there is a misunderstanding about concussion prevention in the

athlete cohort and general public. for example, a football helmet is often thought of as a brain protector when in reality, it's designed to protect the bone structure of the individual and not the brain. if a helmet could guarantee congressional attention, i would still be playing football. once again, i would like to thank you for the opportunity, but more importantly, thank you for taking the time to learn and show your support for this issue today. i look for to the future progress i know can and will be made on the topic. >> thank you. you talk about the lead program and you are exactly right. dr. bring as -- dr. kutcher, bring us some wisdom. >> i am extremely glad to be providing my testimony. i am a physician and sports

pathologist at the university of michigan. since 2005 are have been in charge of the academic sports knowledge program. our program provides support for up to all ages and abilities. provide education to athletes and coaches, administrators and health-care providers. in my clinical practice i care for athletes at the time of injury, returned to play process, over the course of their seasons, carriers, and after they retire. since 2009, have also been share of the sports serology section of the american academy of neurology. i am currently co leading the effort to produce chemical base guideline support on a concussion, an effort that includes reviewing every academic paper ever published on sports concussion. i have also been recently --

recently named the director of the concussion program and the national hockey league players association. the issue of sports concussion has been gaining public interest as well as government interest in the past several years. the majority of the focus has been on those already in the spotlight. while these athletes are experiencing the greatest doses of head impact over their lifetimes, they represent only a small fraction of the population at risk of injury. that is why i'm glad today's focus is on protective equipment being used by all athletes, regardless of level of play, age, or gender. a concussion is commonly a problem seen only in males. but concussions occur in females as well, with some data suggesting the concussion instance is actually higher in ales.s compared to mem

up to 3.8 million are estimated to occur each year in the united states and the majority of those occur in our youth. there is great concern regarding the notion of possible long-term effects from concussion, especially on the pediatric population, which may be at even greater risk given the ongoing development of the pediatric brain. it is an injury occurring to the brain when the brain moves fast enough or suddenly enough to disrupt the normal electrical function of its component cells. given the brain is floating inside fluid inside the skull and that the head can act as a pendulum when the body is struck, movements of the brain can occur with or without a direct blow to the head as long as this call or the brain inside of it is the celebrated with enough force or accelerate it with enough force.

a concussion can take on at many different forms, but include slowed thinking, memory difficulties, or other signs of memory dysfunction. concussions cannot be diagnosed by anyone test. a diagnosis can only be made after a careful clinical a evaluation performed by a health-care professional, and preferably one experience with brain injuries. it is important to recognize that confession is not the only brain injury by can occur from head trauma. bleeding around the brain or skull fracture can occur any time that an athlete or an object is moving quickly in the field of play. there is emerging evidence that forces from multiple impacts that may not even produce concussion could have a potentially negative long-term health effects on the brain. helmets have an extremely

important role to play. without them, the potential for serious injury would be -- would make many of our sports extremely risky. for example, school fractures from playing football have essentially been eliminated from home -- by using helmets. some concussions occur not as a result of the force experienced by the scroll, but as the force experienced by the brain -- by the skull, but as the fourth experience by the brain. currently, there is no convincing data in published literature that show any particular helmet as better than any other to prevent concussion. such data is hard to collect for two main reasons. first, given the variables that exist in the athletic population and the various exposure to him? , is extremely difficult to conduct a randomized controlled

clinical trial on populations of athletes. the second, given that the confession is a clinical diagnosis with no exhaustive diagnostic tests, and a concussion and -- any conclusions are limited. there is no published data for the same reasons to show that now spans or other guards reduce concussions. i have seen results and the other direction as the new-found sense of security encourages rough play. every week i announced by parents about what equipment they should buy to prevent concussions. the truth is that no single piece of equipment can significantly prevent concussions from occurring. they occur as a natural event

from playing sports. the potential harm that i see is far more than simply the financial arm of paying more for something that is not likely to work. it comes from having a false sense of security, not understanding how the injury occurred and what could be done to prevent it. the public has a significant, but in heraclea limited ability -- helmets have a significant, but inherently limited ability to prevent concussions. i look forward to it prances as we work to protect our athletes. thank you. >> let's move on. >> chairman rockefeller and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify on sports concussions and their consequences. my name is dr. ann mickie, a professor of pathology -- ann

mckee, a professor of biology. i am also co-director for the center of dramatic encephalopathy. i am not speaking on behalf department of veterans affairs. mild brain injury, or concussion, is a temporary state of neurological dysfunction resulting from forces on the brain, acceleration, deceleration collateral and rotational forces. some of concussion is caused by these same forces, -- sub- concussion is caused by the same forces, but symptoms are milder. in all of these cases, the brain looks normal after the injury and there is no detectable damage on routine euro imaging, such as acy thank fdot -- such scan or mri.

as the brain as a whole is stretched or deformed by these forces, there is also stretching on the support cells within the brain. the brain abnormalities associated with a concussion occur at the molecular and metabolic levels. if an athlete returns to play before the symptoms result, the athlete risks of developing post-concussion syndrome or cysts that are a rare, but often fatal, condition. in addition, can cause severe ive injury -- concuss i can cause additional injury that develops slowly over a decade. it is triggered by repetitive concussive injury on a brand

that has not healed from previous injury. this is why proper diagnosis and management of concussion, allowing the brain to complete the rest and recover after an injury, is so important in youth sports. >> as well as the issue of relatively young children whose brains are still growing. >> absolutely. the youth's brain is more susceptible to concussive injuries that adult brain. children recover more slowly. u.s. athletes are also more at risk of concussion due to their -- youth and athletes are also more aggressive percussion due to their disproportionate size. and they are uniquely susceptible to second impact sandra, which has only been reported under -- second impact the syndrome, which has 11

reporter under the age of 24. it happens when there is a second head injury when -- before the sun comes up associated with the first impact have cleared. typically, the athlete returns to play too early and received a blow to the head, which may be minor. that they appear stunned at first, but in the next few seconds to minutes, the athlete collapses to the ground; toes. the result is almost -- to the ground, comatose. the result is almost always permit injury. i have examined the brains of many athletes and diagnosis cte in 44 ballplayers, including professional -- 40 football players, including professional

all the way too high school. individuals with the syndrome become more aggressive commendable, develop mood changes, sometimes become suicidal and of drug and obvious. as the disease progresses, they develop short-term memory loss, which leads to increasing cognitive impairment, and ultimately dementia and in some cases parkinsons'. it is caused by a buildup of a protein that forms a tangle within the brain -- a tangle of neurons within the brain. it is usually found in limited quantities, but in cte, there is a striking buildup of this even in yon examples. david corston of the chicago bears began playing football at

age 8 and experienced many concussions over his nfl career. after retiring he had a loving family and had four children. at the age of 46, he experienced financial district -- difficulties and the dissolution of his family. he developed memory losses and mood swings and headaches. in february of 2011 he killed in stockton tied his florida apartment. he left instructions to donate his brain to my laboratory and my examination showed he was suffering from moderately severe cte even though he was only 50 years old. another example is a when thomas, who played football since age 9. in the spring of 2010 he called as perinton said he was stressed by school and having trouble in his courses. days later he hanged himself

inside his on campus apartment. if you compare their brains, there are remarkably similar, but milder pathology, suggesting that if ellen thomas s. -- owen thomas had lived in the 30 years, he would have a and advanced to the progressive the stage as the former football player. another player in a game was tackled as he intercepted a pass. he then collapsed unconscious. he died the following day. examination showed several head each -- subdural hemorrhage. he was the youngest player ever diagnosed with cte. i have now examined the brains

of 58 individuals with cte and i have found players as jenna 17 and 18. is -- as young as 17 and 18. we know that once cte is triggered, it progresses slowly over decades to the above widespread degeneration of many brain structures. the symptoms are subtle and begin in mid life with personality and behavioral changes, including irritability, short fuse, depression, suicidal ideas and memory loss. there is a slow progression to dementia and parkinson's. there are many things we do not understand about the disorder. we do not understand the exact prevalence of the disorder, even though we know it clearly exists and is surprisingly common. what factors and what will

develop -- and what will determine who would develop the disorder, how severe, and at what age, all of those are things unknown at this time. we do not know how to diagnose the disease in living individuals, how to stop the progression, or how to reverse its course. but we can make important changes from -- to prevent it from developing in young athletes and those things include understanding what a concussion is, recognition of a concussion when it occurred, and proper management of a concussion when it happened. we can also teach our young athletes to play smart and keep their head out of the game at as much as possible. berlin for an employer and court -- coach education will go along enforcement and player and coach educational goal long way to help. increased scientific research

and development of diagnostic tools to interrupt this do-this disease progression, we can make enormous improvements to protect the mental health of millions of young athletes and military service members for many years to come. thank you. >> that was excellent. so we then finish with mr. mike oliver. let me repeat, the executive director of the national operating committee on standards for athletic equipment. having read my preparations, and still a little bit confused about what you do and what you do not do. >> i think i can cover that. >> thank you. >> i appreciate the invitation to come here today and provide testimony and answer questions to the committee on a topic that is extremely important, to me personally as well as the organization i represent.

my name is mike oliver. i have served as the executive director and general counsel of noxy. we develop face guards, hellas and even soccer shin guards. -- helmets and even some pershing guards. each organization, by definition through our by lies, selects one or two of its members to sit as the director on the board. we have two non-voting positions representing the national sports governing bodies of the ntia and the high school federation, the nhs. there is no single controlling interest group on the board.

it is not a trade organization. there is no membership category. funding is undertaken through licensing fees that were charged to manufacturers who want to certify equipment to our standards and to use our trademark and logos and property and phrases. although we are not a certified body -- we do not certify equipment independently of the manufacturers -- we do engage in surveillance and monitoring product performance through validation testing as required by our standards, as well as direct product testing in an accredited testing laboratory, with whom we contract to provide technical support and services. decisions regarding changes to standards or the creation and adoption of new standards are driven by science and motivated by the desire of board members to protect athletes, not by

profit, market share or any other interests. the mission of the commission is to establish standards for athletic equipment, where feasible to fund research. we have funded more than $6 million in research grants since the first grand was issued in 1984. that includes more than $5 million related to concussion research. helmets, whether they are football helmets or batters helmets, must score more than 1200 severity standards of impacts conducted at 1200 -- at a certain mileage per hour. in addition, there are four impact at lower speeds that have lower threshold requirements. although they are not concerned -- our standards are not

concussion specific, they are limits that are involved in most concussion events. the standard does provide some level of protection of those conditions. we do not promote helmets as being concussion preventive or anti-concussion because there is no way to measure the extent of the protection provided. what we have not been able to get address, and is a subject not addressed by any other hamas standard in the world, is how to establish -- any other helmet standard in the world, is how to establish a protection for rotational acceleration. these are involved in a significant number of concussions and these types of accelerations can occur with out even at a blow to the head. there is no single source that

specifically addresses concussion prevention. and the development of a standard for any protective equipment requires a substantial scientific reports that compliance with the standard would, in fact, eliminate or reduce the severity of concussions without reducing safety standards in other areas. certainly, helmets are not the only solution to providing better protection against concussion. prevention, diagnosis, treatment in management decisions -- treatment, and management decisions about when an athlete may return to play are just as important. in fact, these may be to even more important. we have entered into a partnership, as mentioned earlier, with the seavey cp -- cdcp to promote the education

among those who are motivated to provide the best level of education and education to their children, the parents. scientists are working hard to understand the issues of that improvement might be made in prevention and treatment. we are on one of the fight -- we are one of the four primary funding sources for this research. any device, including helmets, promoted as being able to prevent or cure a concussion must be presented to peer review of research. we fund concussion research to a advanced science so that changes can be made to standards that will reduce concussions without increasing risk in other areas. and we have taken specific steps to do that while the answers are

found. but without specific answers, any changes made to address concussions becomes nothing more than a hopeful experiment, returning players into involuntary test subjects and that is something we will not do. it and look forward to the discussions today -- i look forward to the discussions today. >> thank you for that excellent testimony. we have been joined by senator klobuchar from minnesota. there are having quarterback difficulties. [laughter] >> we do have a team, however. >> yeah, you do. [laughter] i am from west virginia. i deserve that. what is interesting -- that was good. [laughter] i have spent -- i think my

mother spent about 12 years with alzheimer's, but by she did. my mother's wife also died from alzheimer's. there are about 5 million people that have alzheimer's in this country. one of the stunning things about hall -- about alzheimer's, which interestingly, if you are working in that area of the brain you can also work on alzheimer's because there are many common threads. the "new york times" came out with an article six or eight months ago basically saying that the last 30 years of research at the great institute of research in this country had produced absolutely no progress whatsoever on finding a cure for alzheimer's, not for preventing it, not for slowing it down, not for even testing to find out if you have it. although, that might be on the way, but it does not cure it, which is what we want.

that is a stunning figure. now come along the injuries that are sustained by concussions, made more poignant by the fact that they come so early in life and can have such terrible consequences that you, miss ball, decided not to do what you spend your whole life preparing to do. that is not necessarily typical. that is a very wise decision to make. i want to throw this at all of you. you could develop a 50 pound helmet and all it would do it is more securely, i think, unless i'm wrong -- it would more securely make sure your head does not get split open. but it would not do one thing to stop the movement of the brain. which then, if you say that

emphatically enough, it raises the question of what can you do medically? you can analyze. and we do that with alzheimer's. registryan alzheimer's where people leave their brains to be studied, just like you have had. you learn from that. but that does not do them any good. i want to raise two questions. one is, to the medical side of this, do you think i am wrong? you think is just because it is a relatively early discovery? to be quite honest, i did not know at all that somebody who had played soccer could get this until i watched the movie about the wedding when we beat china back in 1980, and that

incredibly powerful player that the chinese all stayed away from because she would just flatten them. she had chronic fatigue syndrome. she did not have a brain concussion of any sort. and and you see soccer a lot. all of us watch soccer on a lot more. and you see people using their heads and you do not know whether the bands are on them are not. it is amazing, the ignorance of the american people, about this problem even though we know much more than we did know about it. i want to know right off the bat how hopeful you all are, realistically, about being able to find a problem in all of this so that the brain is not thrown off. can this happen?

>> i personally am very hopeful. we did not know about this disease five years ago in any real way. and what we have learned in the vice five years has been extraordinary. we have made the extraordinary gains in identifying how the disease looks, how would progresses through the nervous system. now that we understand it exists, we can model experimental systems and come up with the therapies that might help us treat living patients. i actually think that this disease may ultimately be a window to provide insight into things like alzheimer's disease. alzheimer's disease is characterized by a buildup of protein as well. and maybe understanding how this starts and how it progresses, we may have insight into how it starts. one of the things about alzheimer's is that we do not know. it starts silently.

we can never identify precisely how it starts. but this is a disease that we know we have a time course. it develops over time. i think it will give us an enormous opportunity for intervention. >> is this because of helmets or other -- >> no, i think understanding the process andlogica intervening there. intervening where it is triggered, or in the system -- the nervous system. there seems to be a progression that there is one nerve cell and then it causes the disease to be propagated. if we can interrupt the progression of all we can make an enormous difference with this disease. that may be the case with alzheimer's as well. we were focused on the beta amyloid protein.

we were not able to come up with very much. but we have not focused on tao very much. maybe that will help. >> can i ask you two athletes, is that the prevention of something that you know you already have from becoming worse that interests you the most -- the answer has to be yes -- or is that the absence of the vast amount of change in the way everybody in this country thinks -- or is it be absolutely vast amount of change in the waiver but in this country thinks? there are a lot coaches in rural states that are also math teachers. that is probing not very good for coaching or mouth. but that is how it works. people do not know. if you are talking about not letting it happen in the first

place, that means you have to tell your person to keep their head up. try kowt -- try telling that to an nfl player who has just been shot blocked by someone and they have the chance to get back at them. human stress and behavior is hard to control. maybe if the shock of what people are learning -- or if we do more of this -- that coaches or parents -- and parents are a lot less helpful on this than they think they can be. kids want to just go ahead and do it. i am 17, do not tell me i cannot do this again. is it that you do it after you know you have it? and you try to prevent it from happening? >> i would say, yes. obviously, i believe awareness would be the biggest issue. if you could increase the knowledge base for the general public and for the athletes, i

feel like recovery -- athletes would do a lot better with recovery. it will -- they would take time to allow their brains to recover. i do not believe brain injury is considered a serious enough issue throughout athletes. it was not for me until i had a concussion that changed when i was able to do in school and on a daily basis. >> i am with overtime. i apologize. in your locker rooms, both of you, is there any discussion about this among the athletes themselves? >> concussions are talked about kind of off slightly still, at least when i went replying -- went through playing. a lot of people work if you got your concussion one day and then you are resting, players are like, i do not see them hurt. why are they setting out? i think that mentality need to change. if you have a concussion, then

you need to be given respect to rest. it but to do our doctors get any good training on this in -- >> do our doctors get any good training on this in their medical? >> not as good as we would like. and they find they can make more money elsewhere and apart. on the question of whether i am optimistic or not, the answer is yes. i am optimistic. but your story about alzheimer's and your lack of improvement and understanding for treatments is very applicable to this situation. it is also not unique to bring pathology in general. i think about strow, multiple sclerosis, we do not have cures for these -- i think about stroke, multiple sclerosis, we do not have kerr's for these either. -- we do not have cures for

these either. cte on the one hand, it is a general -- a degenerative neurological process that is coming from multiple blows to the head. i do not think for a moment that these folks are at a high risk of developing the neurodegenerative disease itself. i think we are at an a -- a stage now where we are just turning to understand the scope of a problem. as the doctor mentioned, we do not know the full problems of this. we are finding it more and more often in those who have had brain in packs, those in the military as well, but how does it relate to neurological disease? we do not know. i do not want to alarm these folks over here that because they have had concussions that they will have cte later in life. >> i'm way over my time. i apologize to my colleagues. senator bozeman.

>> i'm glad you mentioned that because i was going to ask dr. mckee. she mentioned to the 17-year- old that passed away. i guess, one reported concussion and then passed away, as opposed to -- were there other reported concussions prior to that? >> no, i do not have any of the reported concussions. >> we really do not know if he played through a concussion. >> right. >> or as you mentioned, doctor, the repeated blows of being in a position he was in. it really is a problem. you are all testifying so well. the problem is, to play athletics at the level that you played at, you are in pain every day that you go out there. sometimes they are not significant injuries, but they are broken figures, a nagging fingernail that was pulled off,

just these nagging things i can be very painful. athletes are taught to play through that or you do not get to the level that you are all liable to play at. to follow up, you did not feel like for the head injuries, the concussion aspect was talked about very much for in your career? >> before me, ed was not a serious topic until my last concussion. until i had to be out on the field. but there was a shoulder separation, ankle sprain, whatever it was, shoot it up and i'm able to go. but that is not the case with brain injury. you cannot just take something for the pain and deal with it later. >> sometimes it is not as much pain as some of these other injuries. if you agree with that?

-- do you agree with that, that you did not get enough education in that regard? >> i would agree. it is not really taught in youth sports. but when i was playing in both high school and in college, it was just concussion. that is always was. -- all it was. >> i have been on the v.a. committee in the senate and house. we spend a lot of money trying to figure out the ied component of this, which is similar or the same, whatever. do we have a test now that we can identify if somebody has gotten a pretty good blow? is there an easy test to determine? >> no, we need lots of research to determine that. that is something we do not have. we do not have a way of identifying a concussion other

than a series of psychometrics tests, balance tests, those kinds of things. we do not have an easy way to identify it or monitor it. that is an apparent -- a very important issue that the v.a. is addressing. it is a crucial issue. >> you two are board certified and well-trained. i suppose, which were licensure, you have to achieve so many hours of continuing education to continue our certification. i guess, what i'm wondering in the course of this -- we had not talked about too much about the education aspect of this. your coaching a little bit now and perhaps -- you are coaching a little bit now and perhaps going to pursue that. were you a pain major? >> no, sir.

i am coaching has by playing career. >> ok. what i am concerned about and maybe we could visit with somebody at some point about this -- when you are coaching in these institutions now, are they talking about this? the importance of it. the crux -- >> they have essentially made it a policy that all athletes and coaches need to receive concussion education annually. uc conferences like the big 10 having that -- you see conferences like the big 10 have been the policy as well. all of the athletes get a lecture from me or one of my delegate on concussion. things are improving. there is a long way to go, especially as you go down to high school and junior high school and the community leaders. but there is a push in that

direction, to make people get an education at either as they participate or as a player as it -- as they participate as a player or as a coach. >> that will be good. and again, in our teaching institutions to include that in curriculum. and also, the state sanctions, as they do their continuing education, to make this something that is talked about every year would be very helpful. the other thing i want to touch on very briefly, and you all can comment -- i know that you will talk more about this. but the idea of being able to certify a helmet as something that will prevent concussions or whatever, the chairman mentioned about a 50 pound helmet. and theoretically, if you can

reinforce the helmet and making it do that, then it is more of a weapon. maybe you create another problem in doing that. can you just comment on that again for the record? that is not possible. the advertisements that we see. >> i appreciate that comment because i think is very apropos of the difficulties that we face in trying to come up with ways to address things like concussions. therese extent, the mass of the helmet is productive. -- to a certain extent, the mass of the un is protective. -- of the helmet is protective. but there are limits to what you can do with the helmet as far as mass. you get to a certain point and the extra weight becomes a risk in other areas and you increase the risk of neck injuries and other injuries by doing that.

there's a trade-off in that regard. i do think there is progress that can be made once science gets to a point where they can identify the specific forces, or combinations of forces and the resultant forces, that are likely responsible for these concussion issues. the thing that is probably most restrictive is the fact that right now, you cannot study a living human brain at the level, at the molecular level while it is being subjected to blows from the outside to see how it is responding. there are ways to collect data in the field to show how much the forces are and how much the head has seen. we just sort of a larger project with dartmouth university, dartmouth school of engineering and wayne state university, to look at diffuser mri's to look

at injury. to follow if a ballplayer -- a football player after an event and feed this information into a program that would then how bus model what happens to the brain -- help us model what happens to the brain in certain circumstances when it is struck. it would help us to determine those circumstances better than we do right now. and that is with the goal to come up with a standard where we can confidently say, if a helmet meets a standard, which would include these issues, then you have a comfort level to provide protection against concussions. now, not all concussions, and it would be certainly to prevent a particular amount. but it would be designed to meet

those specific issues the we know the cause concussions. but having this design behind it is absolutely preliminary and you cannot move forward without it. >> thank you. >> senator yudof. >> dr. kutcher the my varitek -- your testimony states that there is no evidence of any home of being better than any other in preventing the sports concussion -- any home it being better than any other in preventing sports concussions. last year, there was testimony that widell has -- ridell has. huge published information that shows their home of reduces concussions by 31% when compared

to traditional helmet. one of the authors of the study told the "new york times" earlier this year that he disagreed with ridell's marketing the 31% figure without acknowledging its limitations. ridell has extensively used this claim in its marketing. here is just one example in this poster behind me. this is an example taken today from the website of riddell's parent company. do you think this single 2006 study provides a reasonable basis for them to claim that they reduce concussions by 31% compared to traditional helmets? >> no, i do not. i am aware of the study and what i said was that there is no

significant data to make the claim in the literature. i know that study is in the literature. there are two main problems with that study. the first is the quality of the study itself, how would was set up in trying to look at two different populations, one wearing a certain kind of helmet and one wearing a different one. you want them to be as equal as possible. that was not well done in that study. to the point where i would not consider the state designed to be acceptable scientific protocol. the second and critique is the 31% figure is relative to the change. the populations that have the old, had a 7.6% concussion rate over the study time frame. -- the populations that have the new helmet have 7.6% conversion rate over the study time frame.

when you present the numbers the way they did, they will think that it is 31% fewer concussions. actually, it was 2.6%. >> and you can see why a parent who would be concerned about concussions with all the increasing awareness out there would see something like this and see 31% and think, i'm going to get a really protective helmet for my child. and really, what we are talking about is something very misleading. >> i do see that every week in my clinic. patients come in with their parents sang they want to buy the new helmet, this is the concussion on the, what do you think about it? this is a real conversation i have all the time. >> and they are asking that question over and over again.

>> correct. >> typically, what do you tell them and what do they do afterwards? >> the most important thing is i advise them to have a new home if you can get one. avoid a reconditioning thing where you do not know if the helmet is of two standards. -- is up to the standards. make sure it fits correctly. after that, i say look at the different manufacturers and if money is not an option, by the highest one on the line. you cannot have a concussion without force. but force is not the only thing going on here. if i took 100 athletes, or 100 people, and concussed them. you'll get 100 different responses. or a blow to that, the same thing. -- a blow to the head the, the same thing. you get 100 different responses.

it is a force acting on a brain that is very individualized and very dynamic. at the end of the day, if i'm going to get a helmet that gives the and least amount of force through, that is the one you want to get. notwithstanding the whole complexity of the issue. >> thank you. senator klobuchar. >> thank you, mr. chairman. again, i heard about this, really, for the first time -- you had heard stories in my state, but at this big dinner that they have in minnesota. an athlete came and spoke about the research and i just walked away from that sort of blown away about the facts that are out there and the need for more education. i then held up an alzheimer's forum this summer. one of the things that i learned was, just as early diagnosis

this summer and what i learned is that a lot of the players are donating their brains, those that it dementia, to research. and early diagnosis could really help us, not just the patient, but could help us potentially develop a cure. the mayo clinic was able to do more because they have these advanced ways to recognize early diagnosis. you cannot practice different kinds of solutions and medications and things without knowing the early on. if you wait too long when someone is to advance, you cannot actually tell if something is working or not. do you want to comment on that?

>> absolutely. you have to have some sort of test that can monitor the course of a disease in order to tell if it is being affected in a living patient. you have to develop diagnostic markers, by no markers of both concussion -- biomarkers of both concussion and sub- concussion. as well as cte. they are all different. and that way, once we develop these experimental models in the lab and get to the point where we are testing them on living people, we can actually see if they're working. without doubt, we cannot tell if they are working or not. >> and a doctor at the headquarters based in minnesota, we are proud of the work being done in our state. could you talk about the work being done for practice guidelines so that we are able

to get guidelines for athletes, and if there is any scientific data available on that? >> right now, if you look at the literature, you will see maybe a dozen or more consensus statement. the groups get together and come up with what the experts think it should be the best way to approach a diagnosis and management of concussions. but today, there is not a way to look at the totality of literature in a critical way. looking at the totality of the data and coming up with what we have that is evidence based in this issue. that is what the effort was. we started this two and half years ago. it is a committee of 12 people, 7 neurologist and five non- neurologist. these are people from sports medicine, neurosurgery, psychiatrist. the goal is to look at where we go -- where we are and where we need to go.

the goal here -- and we are hoping to be published in the spring of 2012 -- is to set forth for the steps or that we need to take to get the data that we are doing something that is evidence based. >> thank you. i know that organizations like the brain injury association, fl, center for disease control are working to educate the public. as students who have had this happen, what do you think is the best way to get this information out to your fellow students and players? >> i believe there is a lot of progress being made already through educational, informational seminars. i know what the school that i was at in arizona, there was a protocol that they have to

attend a class, their parents have to attend a class, coaches have to, i think, just as a requirement to understand what the brain is and how serious an injury is. >> we did that this summer, too. >> i think awareness is spreading and it will only increase to gain significant. >> i agree with preventative measures -- we are doing high school, but if we can start even number at a youth and sports centers. soccer is very prevalent among the youth. and in new mexico, different clubs are taking initiatives to teach about concussions. i think that should be spread out to the teams and the parent as well. once people are aware of how serious a concussion can be, that will help us take the next up for. >> after you had your concussions and you decided not to keep playing, did you have

any pressure from your peers to keep playing, your parents, other players? >> i personally did not. all of my doctors, fellow players, coaches were very supportive of my decision to stop playing. >> i think people respect your decision to stop. obviously, they want you to keep line because they miss you playing with them, but overall, if people were very supportive. >> thank you both for being here. >> thank you, senator klobuchar. senator pryor. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and thank you for having this hearing. it is a very important issue that touches this country all over the map and in many different sports. let me start with you, if i may, mr. oliver. i would like a bit of context on the legal framework, in terms of -- or their state laws -- are

there state laws on helmets in sports? are there conferences like affleck conferences at high schools and associations -- like high-school athletic conferences and associations? when it comes to football, do they have standards? what is the legal framework? but the legal framework is actually fairly simple. -- >> the legal framework is actually fairly simple. the standards that we publish -- that is the best example because it applies across the board to other sports. we publish the standards that our performance standards that indicate what the homeless are supposed to do to meet the standards. with an organization, for example, like the n.c.a.a., they will incorporate in their rules of play a requirement that there athletes -- that their athletes meet the requirements of standards. >> in terms of the home at themselves? >> in terms of the helmets. you cannot play unless it is certified as meeting our standard.

>> and they also change the rules in terms of hitting the quarterback and contact and that type of thing absolutely. -- that type of thing. >> absolutely. the same process applies to high schools through the national azko federation. although, because it is a federation it does not control directly the states individually, but they participate voluntarily. some states, for example, california has a law that requires at the high school level that athletic equipment be sanitize on annual basis. that has been interpreted to mean that the helmets must also be reconditioned. if they are reconditioned and that means they will be recertified and that means they will be subject to reevaluation.

>> which means new pads, no cracks -- >> exactly. and they are tested before they are reconditioned and afterward. but that is the only state to my knowledge that actually imposes that requirement by law. >> on the high-school level, is and it generally voluntarily -- isn't it generally voluntary? >> on the high-school level, there is a requirement on any basis at that level. >> how long is it good for? is it good for one season before it needs to be reconditioned? >> that depends on how hard a helmet is used and what types of abuse it has been subjected to. anytime i am contacted we strongly recommend that helmets be subjected to recertification every year, because there's no way to tell in advance whether it needs it or does not. and we know this because of the

data that we get back every year, that about 90% of the helmets that we recondition and certify have been in the previous year. a large percentage of them are done on an annual basis. what is not happening, and is something that we are trying to address both through the cpsc as well as individual workers, those that are not subject to state control or n.c.a.a. control where very little is known about the population of those elements, if they do not cause submit them to a recertification program or replace them on their own, there is no umbrella organization that is in charge of most of those players in those clubs. that needs to be addressed. >> what is the general life expectancy of a football helmet? >> it depends on the manufacturer. ridell has put a 10-year limit on their helmets.

that has been their policy for along time. one of the other major manufacturers has said it is long as the helmet has been properly cared for and reconditioned, parts replaced, patting replaced, the shell inspected, but the end of 10 years, the only part that would be 10 years old would be the shell, and you cannot replace the shell in the reconditioning process. if it is cracked or damaged, the helmet is done. it depends on how well it is cared for. >> if i may ask another question, and it may be uncovered this earlier, i am sorry, but what is the age scale of looking at concussions in sports? i assume that you have someone very early ages, but do they get more common and more severe as

you get older, as the players get bigger, stronger, faster? tell me what the statistics say it. >> the range goes down to the youngest athletes, seven, eight, nine years old. we see kids with concussions that young. as they mature and get faster and stronger, there are larger impacts and more injuries. as they go up to junior high school, you will see greater numbers of concussions. there is data that shows that basically every level that you go up, you organized used -- organized youth, college, prose, the incidence go up. the play is faster, the athletes are stronger. the other idea is the junger kids may have -- the younger kids may have maugre injuries and maybe longer to get them back. that adds a different wrinkle to

it. you may have covered this earlier, but when i think of concussions in sports, i think of football. but i may be totally wrong on that. what is the list of the most risky sports for concussions? >> i would say football is at the top of the list. >> is it way ahead of everybody else? >> it is tough to get good data that compares sport to sport. there are some good studies that have looked at the high-school population in fairfax county, va., great work looking at the difference sports. football had about doubled the incidence of the next highest court, which i believe was lacrosse, but women's soccer was right at there, and then men's soccer, wrestling, basketball, down the list. ice hockey was not in that

study, but it was probably aid little lower than football, possibly 20% lower. >> thank you. >> every time the bell rings, but you have to understand is that is telling you precisely that there is nothing happening on the floor. [laughter] it is only one keeps ringing that we have to go vote. talking about soccer, and, mr. threet, just like tony romo, your slam to the ground, your head hit the ground. which is often hard.

there are so many ways in football, a revenge hit, just a mean player who is famous for that and gloves that and it's endorsements because of it, commercial endorsements. soccer is extremely brutal, exhausting, on a huge field, where a barry's usually, what, three, up four goals scored and that is it. been thinking about it, and i watched and lot because of the 1980 triumph, it is hitting the ball. you probably are slammed into the ground or tripped up. a lot of tripping up. deliberate tripping. does that mean that had hits?

i do not know. but what are some of the ways that concussions, about in soccer -- what are some of the ways that concussions, about in soccer? if it is heading the ball, is it from hitting the ball with your head? >> heading the ball tends to be relatively safe if you use your forehead. the concussion comes if you hit the top of the ball with your head, most likely from a plant because the ball is moving at a greater speed or it gets shot at you and you happen to be in the way and it hits the side of the head. for me, the most common way was my head to the ground. the type of player i was, i would get my legs knocked out and i would hit the ground. when you are playing soccer, you are watching where the ball is.

you may not even see it, and oftentimes those are bypassed because you are not aware because you are following the ball. another risky area it is in confrontations against the goalie. i have seen the coli get there had to kick. i have seen players get need in the head -- kneed in the head. >> like in hockey. >> right. >> yeah. there is so much work to be done by so many. i am a sports fan, you watch college and professional football, and there is almost an instinct to look for the player who plays dirty. and then if he does, you turn

your wrath on roger goodell and the nfl for not having him ejected from the game, the referees have that responsibility. they can fine them or push them back 15 yards. they should be ejected from the game. how do you influence young men who play football, part a nit to win, they did not have long careers. >> running back has the shortest. >> right, so that adds to the desperation to succeed. if somebody comes in and give you a lecture in the locker room on concussions, i bet half the people are not listening because you have not had one. >> yes, and it is very difficult from the defenders' side of the game. violence is probably the biggest

characteristic that you need to be successful on defense. the need to be violent. >> and known to be violent and prove it. >> right, that is part of the football game. as far as that sport is considered, i feel like it is more of the understanding about brain injury and understanding of the recovery process, as opposed to their changing the game, getting rid of head-to- head contact. i think more of it is the recovery when that happens, because there will always be big hits in football. and a lot of them are legal, too. >> or a third person is involved. at them exactly, and blows to the body exactly, just as it blows to the head. >> if you get clobbered in the

chest, that can give you a concussion? >> yes. any time your head is moving fast enough or your brain is moving fast enough. >> what kind of blow would do that? >> hit to the body, to the side that transmits enough force to stop your movement. >> tight ends are very large. about right, if they get hit in the chest hard enough. >> a perfect example of that, last year we all heard about jackson's concussion planning in a game between the falcons and the eagles. i do not recall if there was a fine or penalty, but if you watch that hit in slow motion, available on the internet, there was no head-to-head contact between the tackling player and jackson. he was hit in the shoulder, but it snapped his head violently forward and then the violently

backward as he was going down. those are the mechanics you are talking about when the head is moving in so many different planes of motion that the brain does not have time to catch up to itself and it gets folded over and compressed. >> i am over my time again. i think everyone. i have to leave. i have to go to a cyber security hearing, a different kind of threat. senator, you are taking over the hearing. the ranking member. oh, seantor. he could have been a tight end. [laughter] >> wide receiver. >> thank you. i appreciate that. thank you for holding the hearing, and i thank the panel for sharing your thoughts with us.

i want to follow-up on the questioning that was started earlier. you are seeing participation at an all-time high in terms of kids, young people across the country participating in sports, and an incredible number of sports related injuries. when most people think of concussions, you think about football. there are lots of other sports where we are seeing that, but i am interested in knowing, we have a lot of younger people participating in football. i have an 11-year-old nephew who was involved and a concussion and he is out a month. on the ground.t hahead it seems we have more young people out there, injuries occurring at an earlier and earlier age. is that something we should be

concerned about? are we starting kids to wherley and sports like football, -- are we starting kids out to work early in sports like football? what is your perspective on the rise of concussions? and maybe your thoughts as well on our some of these kids developed enough, capable of enough to take those shots and the injuries their sustaining? >> i will start. i think the issues with concussions being up, more of them, i think it has three main causes. the biggest is awareness. i think that would explain the vast majority of the increased numbers that we see of the past five, six years. the second would be kids being faster and stronger at earlier ages and plan perhaps more

violently. but also the games have changed, to. when you look at how football has evolved, for example, i had one of our former coaches at lecture me on how people have been blocking over the years and tackling, and now we see more hitting and less tackling. the point of football on the defensive side is to stop the ball. he doing much better job wrapping them up rather than trying to launch yourself into a violent hit. for those reasons, the numbers are out. as far as concussions in the junger rages, - younger ages, we have to keep track of the dose of hits the kids are taking. at the young courageous, - when they are younger, you want to keep track of that.

i think that is a very good idea. but it is more complicated than that. at some point, kids have to learn how to hit and avoid being hit and the forces, and that comes with practice. it is a complicated question. >> i look at advances in equipment. my dad played football in the 1930's. at that time, they had leather helmets and he was 130 pounds and played middle linebacker in high school. i know he got knocked cold in that game, and at that time i think they treated everybody with whiskey. when i played in the 1970's, the helmets were a lot better, and the equipment has improved a lot. the amount of padding and protective gear that the athletes wear. we have made great advancements, but these athletes are bigger, stronger, faster,

and the hits that i watched every sunday watching the nfl, there are some really -- there is some real contact being made. you wonder if the equipment is adequate. i am interested in knowing how many other sports like soccer, water polo, who have not traditionally required a great deal of safety gear, is there additional equipment available that could lessen injuries and concussions? anybody on the panel he would care to answer that. >> in general, whatever you could do to reduce the severity of concussions or the frequency or perhaps eliminate concussions it won support would be the same as the other. you are talking about the same brain responses, the same input forces, the same acceleration.

if you can determine how that could be done for may by a mechanical and by a physical standpoint and football, you could probably do that in four other sports -- if you could figure that out and biome chanical and bio-physical, you could address that in other sports. >> ok, my time has expired, thank you. >> thank you, senator. >> just very quickly, it seems like probably 99.9% of the injuries that are suffered are not due to current equipment failure. when you guys were hurt, your

password there, something did not break -- your pads were there. i don't know about little league, but the stuff that is being tested, most of it is working well. i don't worry so much, except it is a difficult problem, i don't worry so much about the big hits that we see where somebody is being helped off the field because we all know something is wrong. i worry more about the injury where you tackle somebody and as you tackle him, he knees you in the face and smacks you good and you get out. but we are conditioned, we were all conditioned to play through injury and you stay out there. i guess the way i'd like to close is we have a lot of moms and dads and coaches and players who are watching this. quickly, is there any message

that you could send it to the parents on how to be better prepared to deal with this if it comes up? >> i think from the athletes standpoint, just increasing their ability to be honest with coaches and parents and athletic trainers and understanding for themselves when something does not feel right, not white had it as, dizziness, if the symptoms r-headedness, igh0headedn dizziness, of the symptoms are known, and the need to be addressed. >> i think it is important to address the symptoms when you have them and once you finish having the symptoms, give yourself extra time because that can prevent you from maybe not

ending your career if you give yourself those extra days of leeway and prevent the long-term injury. >> i think the recognition of the injury issue is huge. athletes hide their injuries. i know that, i see that every day. but people with a concussion often do not know they have one. what that means is that falls under the responsibility of everyone else around, their teammates, coaches, parents, whoever, to look and say if the kid says he is fine, questioned it. so recognizing the injury. i am starting to see teenagers come to me and say, i think he is not right, check them out. what's it has been recognized, they need to report that to the medical staff or whomever and removedat athlete for and recover fully. it is recognition, reporting,

removing, and recovering, 4 r'x. r's. >> i do not see this problem going away with the equipment. i think it will improve the issue, but it will not solve it. we need to address the way that sports are played, the nature, the style of play, the amount of contact that we allow in the play of the sport. that will make a tremendous difference down the road. i don't see even a perfect helmet. there will always be the acceleration, deceleration, whiplashed forces we cannot control. >> i would at echo those comments. there are a number of interventions that need to be enforced and encouraged. it depended on the circumstances, one may be more important than another, but he cannot avoid all of them.

to the extent that you rely on and better diagnosis, you also cannot rely on just having good equipment. you have to do all of those things. we have to change the attitudes of the players and the parents about reporting symptoms, take the stigma away from macho or strong or invinsible. seen itthe things i have is playing data instrumentation. they have seen players have more hats on the crown of their helmet than others. that should not be happening. at because there is increased likelihood of concussion, we have seen schools -- i know the university of north carolina specifically is identifying those players and engaging in behavioral modification so they take that out of the game. you start that at the beginning

and teach the coaches and players that you do not hit with the top of your head, you did not hit with your head at all. the helmet is there to protect you in case you get hit and you cannot avoid it. you make significant reductions in the number of concussions and the severity, and you can reduce the catastrophic consequences of returning to play too soon or having multiple concussions not treated properly. i do not think that you can treat one is more important than the other. >> thank you. i want to return to a little bit of some of the misleading claims on equipment. i know there has been a lot of discussion. athey talked about anti- concussion mouth guards. have you seen this mouth guard that is sold for use by kids 11

years and under? you can see the poster and the background. this was purchased last month. it states the mouth guard reduces the risk of concussions and creates brain safety space. given your knowledge of brain safety trauma, are you troubled by this marketing? do young athletes who have already had a concussion, who are particularly susceptible to advertising claims for anti- concussion devices? >> i believe there is no clear evidence that any mouth guard or chin guard reduces either the rate or severity of concussion. i would have great objection to this claim. the only thing that i am aware that mouth guards and chin

guards do is they reduced dental injuries, but the nature of concussions would not be improved by the use of a mouth guard. >> i know that you are not able to see the one that i was holding up, but it has been produced down there in case you see something that you want to comment on. >> i agree with that. i do not know what brain safety space means. that is alarming, really. >> there is a diagram, and it shows space and specifically its says it creates -- what is the term? "creates brain safety space." >> with some of the work that has been done with accelerometers in helmets of football players and what forces they have clinically diagnosed

concussions, it is a wide range. 15 gits do it, 115 g hits may not. if you reduce it to 110 or so because of a mouth guard, you may be reducing the force a little bit, but the concussions are correct on the spectrum of forces that that will not address. >> i know someone mentioned headbands and soccer. i like to ask about this. you discussed the potential harm from creating a false sense of security when companies falsely claimed that products prevent concussions. this is not just about helmets or football. here is another example. this is a protective headband sold to soccer players and other athletes. here is an image from their

website that says, "this can come between you and head injury." does this advertising trouble you? is there a danger of an athlete may put themselves in at greater risk of injury if they believe this headband will come between them and a head injury? >> i do believe there is a problem there. this type of advertising is a little vague, just mentioning head injury. you could argue there is perhaps a mechanism there to provide some superficial lacerations, bruising, that sort of thing, but for a concussion, there is no data that supports that would decrease the risk of concussion. i have seen in my own practice, as i have testified, athletes have become more aggressive and injured themselves and others because they have a head band up and they hit the ball more, they have had to head hits more, when

it would not have done that before. >> there is another risk here. we have seen this with helmets as well as headbands. that a player who has sustained a concussion now sees this, the parent sees this as the answer. if i put this on, everything is fine, they think. not only a false sense of security from being protected from the first concussion, but being protected because i just had one and this gives me an extra layer. it is incredibly dangerous. >> did either of you as athletes experienced this, in terms of the headband? >> i wore headgear, not this brand, but similar, after i got my second concussion as a preventative measure. i would say i did not really think about a critically.

if i had the head gear on, i would play differently because i thought for some reason i would be secure from getting another concussion. if i did not have it on, i played much differently. >> for me, i used a variety of different football helmets. i would always get a new one after a concussion, i would alternate brands, stiles. i would try different things, but but i guess the rest is still there. >> football in general, you get a concussion, go to the next brand because obviously that brand is not the right one for you is the thinking. >> that is the equipment managers would say that, maybe try a different style, it may do better the next time. >> let me return to the ridell testimonial claim on the repeated concussions.

in a july 23 memorandum, the club managers and the nfl commissioner roger goodell wrote, "it is a port to remember that no helmet can. concussions or reduce the risk of concussion to any specified degree." yet one nfl head athletic trainer has made several product endorsements for the riddell revolution football helmet and a media campaign that highlights tim green of the chicago bears saying, "we have had some players who have had ongoing problem with head injury. we made the switch to the new protective head gear when it came out at its inception and these players have had no problem since then or no repeated concussions." do you expect a young person or

high school football team to have been repeated concussions when switching to the riddell revolution helmets? >> no, i doubt. >> that is straight forward. >> this is beyond my level of expertise. >> mr. oliver, i want to ask about the maximum life span of football helmets. i think you talked about that in relation to senator pryor questioning you. the national athletic recondition your association announced that starting next year, it will no longer recondition helmets that are 10 years or older. the executive director stated he would not want his son wearing a helmet that old. the technical director told the new york times, and this is his

quote, he would "never let his kid wore a helmet that is more than 10 years old." one of their sons, ralph, his son was wearing a helmet that was 20 years old. he said, how is it possible that our son was issued a helmet three years older than he was? why does the standard not set a maximum life span of the number of years before a helmet should no longer be used? >> there are a number of reasons we don't. the first reason is you have to tell me that, that you are looking at. if it is 10 years old and never used, or if it has been used to seasons, should it be replaced because it has reached 10 years? there is no suggestion because it has reached 10 years is more or less protective than other helmets of similar age.

the other thing has to do is whether you are using 10-year life, 11-year life, because maybe there is a change in technology is 10 years ago there was a radical change in the technology of helmet such that all older helmets do not provide the same measurable level of protection, it would make sense to have the life span cut off. we have always relied on the manufacturers to specify the safe life on their helmets. one of the reasons is because we maintain our standards as design neutral. part of that process is to not impose upon a manufacturer and obligation to use a particular kind of material or shape of the shell or design to allow innovation and progress in those areas. if a helmet company makes a helmet and they say this is good for 15 years as one that is regularly reconditioned and recertified, they must have data

to support that. what we know, and we know this from testing data, helmets properly cared for, properly reconditioned, the padding replaced, inspected for cracked and properly cared for, when they are retested after being used on the field after being reconditioned, those test numbers look very much like they did when the helmet was brand new. there is no way for us as an association that set standards to say from artest that a helmet that is now eight years old or 10 years old that scores essentially the same as it did when it is new should be replaced. and for schools to replace it may be one-third or have their helmets when maybe they do not need to be replaced. the other question you have to ask is, right now there are revolution helmets on the market approaching eight years old. i am not endorsing any

particular helmut, but there has been a great cry to move from older style helmets to a newer style,e. if there is the older style properly cared for, patting replaced, retested, what happens at 10 years that makes it suddenly need to be thrown away? if it was safe at nine years or safe at eight years? we don't have the data to suggest that. i think the decision that was made was a policy decision that they would not do it for helmets older than 10 years. 15, 20 yearsbetter old. >> is the requirement and has a clearly visible date of manufacture and reconditioning? >> we require both of those. >> do you know how many high school or your younger football players are wearing helmets that

are 10 years or more in age? >> we do not know specifically. but we know is how it's coming back in for reconditioning because we get the test data at the end of the season. we know of that sample, ballpark figure, approximately 89%-92% of those comments are less than 10 years of age. it varies from year to year, that is the best we come up with. >> and do they still meet current helmet standards? >> they do it if they have gone through the proper program and properly reconditioned. if they don't, they get failed and they don't make it to the reconditioning process. >> i am shifting the issue a little bit to supplements. and bulk of our physicians realize there has been a lot of evidence recently on supplements. this has kind of surprised me.

there is a company selling supplements which claims that de "protect against concussions." it is called sports brain guard. what are your thoughts on these supplements? it is a dietary supplement called brain guard. >> what are the components of brain guard? is that one of the dha products? much like the other discussions, there is no data that this will prevent concussion at all, really. i go back to the conversation earlier in the hearing about the amount of time and money that has gone into neuro protective agents for things like strokes. decades and decades and billions

of dollars and we have not found much of the mechanism of something we know a lot about. that works on the molecular level, yet we do not have an answer their with strokes. i did not have any data on this, nor would i expect there is any. >> let me briefly say in closing, first of all, thank you to the entire panel. i think your testimony has been very helpful, and i think that parents and families out there are increasingly wanting to hear more about this. i think the way that you have engaged us today helps them. i think this issue of awareness, all of you talked about raising the awareness level and we need more education and we need to start younger. those are very important points. and the second, which you see i am passionate about, this whole idea about misleading claims

when it comes to equipment. it just seems to me there is so much work we need to do their to educate people, and people need to realize the old statement that is always used, a " buyer beware." you need to check these products, whether supplements or mouth guards or headband, you really need to look deeper than the advertisement. let me thank you again, and the hearing is adjourned. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] [captioning performed by national captioning institute]

>> coming up, not tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern, homeland security secretary janet napolitano testified. and later, the hearing we just saw on concussions and student athletes. on c-span3, the environmental clean-up program. b>> because i am a businessman, which incidentally i am very proud, and connected with a large company, the opposition has attempted to picture me as an opponent of liberalism. but i was a liberal before many

of those men heard the word and i thought for the reforms of theodore roosevelt and woodrow wilson before another roosevelt adopted and distorted the word little. >> switching in 1940, wilkie sought and won the republican nomination for president. he spoke out for civil rights and became a former ambassador for his opponent, roosevelt. he is one of the 14 men featured in the weekly series, "the contenders," live on friday at 8:00 p.m. easter. -- eastern. >> later this week, live coverage of republican presidential candidates on the trail and iowa, with mitt romney tomorrow at a town hall meeting in sioux city, iowa,

live on c-span3. then ron paul speaking at a rally at the university of iowa, live on c-span2. treasury secretary tim geithner yesterday called for congress to pass the president's $470 billion dollar jobs package. he told the administrator the economic policy is not working. the question and answer is about 35 minutes into this two-hour, 10 minute hearing. >> good morning. let me thank all of you for joining us this morning for this important hearing, and a very special welcome to secretary geithner, who has potentially the toughest job in washington.

we thank him for being with us this morning. a year ago, senate democrats and republican colleagues battle to pass the legislation. today we will review the results of portions of the act, and we will attempt to ascertain what the next steps should be. keeping in mind the important goal of providing capital to small businesses on main street throughout america, an essential component of a job creation and economic recovery. what is clear today that lending has exceeded pre- recession levels from the final quarters of 2011. the jobs act alone initiatives led to the all-time high sba loan approval level and loans supporting over $30 billion in

small-business lending, making the 2011 the most successful year in the history of the loan programs. as a result, some of the provisions that we had included in the small business jobs act. also, as of september 22 this year, the department of treasury had approved more than $1.2 billion of low $1.5 billion for the program, led in large measure by senator levin and others. states can leverage federal funds to a variety of programs that help small business access credit. today, 50 states and territories -- 55, including the district of columbia -- have been approved with four states' pending bid the programs include capital access programs, loan guarantee programs, a venture capital programs, among others,

that help private lenders extend more credit to small businesses. these businesses are not in the beltway here in washington, not on wall street in new york. they are in rural, suburban, and urban areas and main streets around america that have been starved for capital because of this recession. many of these programs have just received funding from treasure, so a complete picture will have to wait. we will get initial did this morning from secretary geithner, and i intended to have a hearing in the second quarter of next year to have an estimate for a variety of state programs. the small business lending fund, a new and bold initiative, was a key element of the small business job act. under a barrage of criticism and publicly declared obstructionism by the senate minority leader, this lending program was born.

it is a wonder it survive at all. while some of my colleagues to date no doubt will be quick to point out the gap between initial expectations and actual lending, i would like to read into the record just a few letters from banks around the country that are participating in this program. the first, and i am not going to read the entire letter, i will submit them for the record -- the financial corp. from ellington, pennsylvania -- 612 main street is their address -- "the coley owned subsidiary bank serves eight counties in western pennsylvania through 13 offices. was nearly $500 million in total assets, we are able community bank -- we are rural community bank.

our banks are the bank of choice for more than 40,000 local customers. four about banking offices are the only bank in town in markets where they are located. while we don't few government- sponsored funding as an optimal form of capital for our company and banks, both sblf program and tarp capital purchase program have provided capital support during the difficult economic period, and both programs have supported a recent growth and in turn, the local economy where we operate. specifically, since receipt of the treasury sblf less than two months ago, we have funded enclosed, or will find enclosed more than 700,000 in qualified loans under the program. our commercial lending efforts, buildout around traditional asset quality standards, as planned in the coming years, have been organized around the program to ensure optimal

utilization of the funding for programs and the best return for our constituents. from literally -- the name of the next bank is heartland, central avenue in iowa -- "dear senator landrieu and snowe, i am heartened to to write you concerning our position in the small business loan fund. we are headquartered in iowa with operations in midwest and western states. let me begin by expressing appreciation for the opportunity to participate in the program to rid our company traces its roots to 1935, when our flagship bank was founded in the depths of the great depression. our purpose then as now is to make credit available and our businesses and serve as an economic engine for growth. it provides an added incentive to reach out to our communities. we provide affordable credit to agricultural clients, which will in turn increase employment

and sustain economic recovery in the communities we serve." just two more. the people's bank from georgia. the people's bank was founded in 1890. it is a $30 million state chartered bank located in west central georgia, halfway between columbus and macon. "we are the only community bank headquartered in the county or the two adjacent counties. funding from sblf boosted the bank's capital by 30% and allowed us to meet our plans to grow 10% annually for the possible future. thank you so much." finally, leader bank out of arlington, massachusetts. "leader bank is proud to be a participant in the small

business lending fund to aid in september 2011, leader bank raced up approximately $12.9 million from treasury. using the allocated funds, leader bank has allocated $4 billion -- has led $4 billion to qualifying businesses and has supported accretion of 113 new jobs." -- supported the creation of out 113 new jobs. a variety of businesses have borrowed funds from sblf, including firms in the biotech industry, as well as a frozen yogurt franchises, a neighborhood convenience stores, and few companies. one more letter from the women's business initiative in wisconsin. that is not a bank, but because of my insistence and others', the lending corporations were included. she goes on to say what a tremendous shot in the army has it has beene arm

for her and the women businesses that she represents in wisconsin. today we will hear from -- with very tight time constraints from congress that treasure was able to distribute $4 billion from the $30 billion available. it will lead to small business lending ranging from $9 billion to $16 billion over the next 16 years. i call your attention to chart that showed just how the large banks averaged there on a landing, and you can see from jpmorgan, citigroup, and bank of america, jpmorgan, $9.5 billion last year, citigroup, $5.8 billion, $5 billion for bank of america. even at the lower rates of lending, because it took so much time and there was some opposition initially, has done not too badly in comparison. today we will hear that they

used some of the money they received to repay these loans. there is nothing here that is controversial. there is a reason to be included tarp recipients in the program. the independent community bankers of america requested we do so. they requested this provision to add their testimony in front of the house financial services committee on may 18, 2010. all small business lending fund banks, whether they received tarp or not, must increase loans to small business to keep their rates low. if they do not keep a small business lending, they will be paying treasury back at higher interest rates. despite tarp repayment positions, we will see more than to small business. today we will hear that the process took too long to get loans out of the door, and i agree, but i remind everyone that this is entirely unique program. treasury did not have a readily available or not sitting on the shelf to take down and steer. -- did not have a readily available road not sitting on

that shot to take down and steered it as the federal reserve chairman bernanke said, community banks are stubborn resilience, precisely the type of people we need to help our economy grow. i am pleased that during this recession, american legislators came together to pass an innovative idea to help turn the tide when it comes to access to capital for america's small business. i am pleased to report that the fund could potentially increase the amount of small business lending by many billions of dollars. while we did not release as much as we had hoped, we had a degree of success nonetheless. i intend to take the testimony given today, as well as input from banks and small businesses, to develop the small business lending fund, too. until this recession is at a distance in the rearview mirror, i believe this committee has an obligation to take time tested and innovative programs and and a -- time tested and animated programs.

-- and innovative programs. today, i welcome secretary geithner. i thank you for your time. i would like to turn it over to the ranking members now, and then we will take questions -- two ranking member snowe, and then we will take questions and her testimony. >> thank you for this critical hearing. certainly because it is the time of economic crisis portions, indisputably, mr. secretary, we welcome you here today is important to look at to the issues of job creation and the lack of economic growth, the lack of job creation overall, and what has gone wrong. your primary mission is to crack -- craft economic policy

of this country, and at this point, it simply is not working. there is no doubt that there is nothing more urgent than creating jobs for the american people, because our nation has been plagued by a staggering unemployment rate for nearly three years. according to the bureau of labor statistics, the average annual unemployment rate for 2010 was 9.6%. it translates into 14.8 million americans unemployed. for 27 of last 32 months, the unemployment rate has been at 9% or higher. about 45% of the unemployed have been out of work for a lease six months, a level previously unseen since world war ii. what is especially frustrating, i think ever more so for those americans who are unemployed or underemployed, this is not a new issue. it has been out there for three years. it is something that we have known. this catastrophe did not happen overnight. in fact, when you appeared

before the senate finance committee in early february, i was describing to you the scenario and what i was hearing on main street as well as in my capacity as the ranking member of the small business committee, as well as members of the finance committee, and he said that might be a -- you said that my view of the economy was dark and pessimistic. what i was relating to you, mr. secretary, was what i was hearing, because it is a clear ingredient of the relationship, understanding what is imperiling the ability of small businesses to create jobs, the people that we depend on to create those jobs for hard-working and deserving americans brought america has always provided -- parking and deserving americans. america has always provided the promise of a job, and millions of americans are missing out on that opportunity. that is what we have to restore. seven months later, since early

february -- in february, it was about 9%, the unemployment rate. today 8 is 9.1%. the number of long-term -- today is 9.1%. it is the first time since world war ii that no new net jobs were created in a single month. according to the bureau of labor statistics, total civilian employment was 132 million, a decline of 2.2 million jobs. that is what it is all about, mr. secretary. looking at the stock numbers, but who represents those numbers? as you well know, in order to restore any stability into our economy, not only to get the 100 beds in you need every month just to remain static, but to change to -- 100,000 unique ever met that test remains deck, but to change the levels, it required 280,000 jobs to be greeted every month for five consecutive years.

a former colleague of ours noted in a recent column in "the wall street journal," had the u.s. economy recovered from the recession the way it bounced back from the other can assess recessions since since world war ii, per capita at gdp would be higher than it is today, and 11.9 million americans would be employed instead, we have a 14 million americans who are still unemployed. we are basically facing we are basically facing the worst post-recession recovery in that history of our country. it requires a sense of urgency. the recovery during the reagan years, after that session, we would have had, approximately, almost 16 million jobs created when one remedy after another fails to solve the crisis, it has mushroomed into what is now